PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE 
INAUGURATION  OF 
JOHN  HUSTON  FINLEY 


PROCEEDINGS 

OF  THE 

INAUGURATION  OF 
JOHN  HUSTON  FINLEY 

AS  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  THE  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK  AND 
COMMISSIONER  OF  EDUCATION 


State  Education  Building 
•January  2,   1914 


»  •  I1 


NEW  YORK  STATE  EDUCATION  DEPARTMENT 

TENTH  ANNUAL  REPORT— VOLUME  4 

ALBANY      1914 


INTRODUCTION 

The  first  Commissioner  of  Education  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  elected  by  the  Legislature  upon  the  unifica- 
tion of  the  two  State  educational  departments  in  1904, 
was  Dr  Andrew  S.  Draper,  recalled  to  his  native  State 
from  the  presidency  of  the  University  of  Illinois.  His 
administration  was  marked  by  a  complete  reorganization 
of  the  educational  interests  of  the  State,  an  insured  har- 
mony in  all  the  educational  activities  of  the  State,  and  the 
completion  of  the  State  Education  Building,  a  monument 
to  his  administrative  genius.  His  death  on  April  27, 
1913,  created  a  vacancy  in  the  great  office  which  his  serv- 
ice had  magnified. 

During  the  interim  following  the  death  of  Commissioner 
Draper,  the  duties  of  Commissioner  of  Education  were 
performed  by  the  Vice  Chancellor  of  the  University,  Dr 
Pliny  T.  Sexton.  With  great  self-sacrifice  and  devotion, 
and  with  no  remuneration  for  his  services,  Doctor  Sex- 
ton actively  gave  several  months  to  the  conduct  of  the 
affairs  of  the  Department,  perfecting  the  unification  for 
which  he  had  during  many  years  labored  with  unceas- 
ing zeal.  As  stated  in  the  memorial  presented  to  him  by 
the  staff  of  the  Department  on  relinquishing  his  duties, 
his  administration  of  the  high  office  he  "  temporarily  filled 
so  acceptably  and  so  efficiently  "  was  marked  "  by  con- 
stant courtesy,  by  patient  attention  to  details,  by  thorough 
and  painstaking  investigation  of  all  matters  requiring  his 
official  action,  by  helpful  suggestions,  and  by  kindly 
criticisms." 

On  July  2d,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Regents  of  the  Uni- 
versity, John  H.  Finley,  President  of  the  College  of  the 


The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 


City  of  New  York,  was  unanimously  elected  Commis- 
sioner of  Education.  The  Board  of  Regents  at  the  same 
meeting  created  the  office  of  President  of  the  University 
and  elected  Doctor  Finley  to  this  office.  The  amendment 
to  the  Regents  Rules  creating  this  office  is  as  follows: 

The  University  and  its  President.  For 
more  complete  unification'  of  the  relations  of  the 
State  to  education,  The  University  of  the  State  of 
New  York  shall  be  the  State  Education  Depart- 
ment and  is  hereby  charged  with,  and  under  its  cap- 
tion and  in  its  name  as  such  University  shall  exer- 
cise the  general  management  and  supervision  of  all 
public  schools  and  all  the  educational  work  of  the 
State. 

In  furtherance  of  such  unification  and  of  the  de- 
velopment and  perfecting  of  the  educational  system 
of  this  State,  there  is  hereby  created  the  office  of 
President  of  The  University  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  whose  incumbent  shall  be  chosen  by  ballot  by, 
and  shall  hold  his  office  during  the  pleasure  of,  the 
Board  of  Regents,  and  he  is  hereby  charged,  in  ad- 
dition to  such  other  duties  and  functions  as  may 
otherwise  be  devolved  upon  him,  with  the  power  and 
duty  of  general  supervision  over  all  educational  work 
and  activities  of  this  State,  and  it  shall  be  his  duty 
also  to  devote  himself  to  educational  research,  to  the 
study  of  the  educational  work  and  systems  of  other 
jurisdictions,  and  selectively  and  reflectively,  with 
the  approval  of  the  Board  of  Regents,  to  introduce 
and  originate,  so  far  as  possible,  better  methods  of 
education,  and  especially  to  endeavor  in  every  fea- 
sible way  to  bring  about  the  improved  development 
and  greater  usefulness  of  the  common  schools  of  this 
State,  of  which  the  Board  of  Regents  were  the  first 
official  promoters  and  are  now  the  sponsors  and 
guardians. 


Inauguration  Proceedings 


The  President  of  the  University  may  attend  all 
meetings  of  the  Board  of  Regents  and  of  its  commit- 
tees, submit  matters  for  their  consideration  and  par- 
ticipate in  their  discussions. 

It  is  hereby  further  provided  that  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Education,  if  there  be  such  official  then 
in  office,  shall  alone  be  eligible  for  election  to  the 
office  of  President  of  the  University. 

President  Finley  soon  gave  promise  of  his  acceptance, 
with  the  expectation  of  taking  office  on  the  first  of  Octo- 
ber, as  he  wished  to  carry  to  conclusion  certain  projects 
which  he  had  undertaken  at  the  College  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  and  also  to  assist  in  beginning  the  work  of 
the  new  college  year.  In  the  meantime  he  was  invited 
by  the  National  Board  of  Mediation  and  Arbitration  to 
act  as  one  of  the  two  independent  arbitrators  in  the  great 
railroad  controversy  involving  more  than  forty  railroads 
and  more  than  eighty  thousand  railroad  conductors  and 
trainmen.  With  the  consent  of  the  Regents  of  the 
University,  Doctor  Finley  sat  as  a  member  of  this  court 
during  September,  October  and  a  part  of  November. 
He  took  the  oath  of  office  as  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation and  President  of  the  University  on  the  29th  of 
November. 

It  had  been  originally  planned  to  hold  the  ceremonies 
of  his  inauguration  at  the  time  of  the  autumn  convoca- 
tion. As  this  could  not  be  compassed,  however,  it  was 
finally  determined  that  such  exercises  should  be  held  on 
the  second  day  of  January. 

On  this  beautiful  winter's  day  there  gathered  in  the 
auditorium  of  the  State  Education  Building  representa- 
tives from  all  the  educational  institutions  of  the  State, 
from  the  leading  colleges  and  universities  and  learned 


10  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

societies  of  the  United  States,  and  from  many  of  the 
higher  institutions  of  learning  in  Europe.  On  the  formal 
program,  New  York  was  represented  by  the  Governor  of 
the  State;  New  Jersey  by  the  State  Commissioner  of 
Education;  the  President  of  the  United  States  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior;  the  Republic  of  France  by  His 
Excellency,  the  French  Ambassador. 

The  addresses  were  of  an  unusually  high  order;  the 
felicitations  most  cordial.  The  inaugural  of  President  Fin- 
ley  was  a  pledge  to  service,  and  while  it  included  in  its 
scope  the  great  city  schools,  its  thought  was  particularly 
of  the  districts  of  greater  need. 

By  no  means  the  least  of  the  delights  of  the  day  was 
the  marked  hospitality  shown  by  the  Governor  and  Mrs 
Glynn.  At  noon  the  Governor  gave  a  breakfast  at  the 
Executive  Mansion  in  honor  of  President  Finley.  There 
were  present  the  distinguished  speakers  and  guests  and  the 
Regents  of  the  University.  After  the  formal  exercises 
of  the  afternoon  the  Governor  and  Mrs  Glynn  gave  a 
large  reception  at  the  Executive  Mansion  in  honor  of 
President  and  Mrs  Finley. 

In  the  evening,  at  the  close  of  the  formal  program,  a 
reception  was  given  in  the  rotunda  of  the  Education  Build- 
ing. A  large,  representative  gathering  of  educators,  men 
and  women  prominent  in  civic  life,  officials  from  State 
and  nation,  were  present  to  meet  the  new  Commissioner 
and  President.  In  the  receiving  line  were  President  and 
Mrs  Finley,  the  Governor  and  Mrs  Glynn,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Board  of  Regents  and  their  wives,  and  the 
distinguished  guests  of  the  occasion.  The  reception 
formed  a  most  fitting  close  to  the  inaugural  exercises. 


PROGRAM  OF  EXERCISES 

TEN  A.  M. 

Informal  gathering  in  Library  reading  room   (228)   for 
registration  and  greetings 

TWO  P.  M. 

Invocation  by  the  Right  Reverend  Richard  H.  Nelson 

Bishop  of  Albany 

Opening  address  by  the  Honorable  St  Clair  McKelway 

Chancellor  of  the  University 

Address  in  behalf  of  universities  and  colleges,  Nicholas 
Murray  Butler 

President,  Columbia  University 

Address  in  behalf  of  secondary  schools,  Frank  S.  Fosdick 
Principal,  Masten  Parl?  High  School,  Buffalo 

Address  in  behalf  of  elementary  schools,  A.  R.  Bru- 
bacher 

Superintendent  of  Schools,  Schenectady 

Address  in  behalf  of  educational  departments  of  other 
states,  the  Honorable  Calvin  N.  Kendall 

Commissioner  of  Education  of  New  Jersey 

Address  in  behalf  of  the  citizens  of  the  State,  William 
Church  Osborn 

Inaugural  address  by  John  Huston  Finley 

President  of  the  University 

Greetings  from  delegates 

Benediction  by  the  Right  Reverend  T.  M.  A.  Burke 

Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Albany 


12  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

SEVEN-THIRTY  P.   M. 
The  Chancellor  of  the  University,  presiding 

Address  by  the  Honorable  Martin  H.  Glynn 

Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York 

Address  by  the  Honorable  Franklin  K.  Lane 

Secretary  of  the  Interior 

Address  by  Charles  William  Eliot 

President  Emeritus,  Harvard  University 

Address  by  His  Excellency,  J.  J.  Jusserand 

Ambassador  from  France 

Reception 

Following  the  exercises  a  reception  was  held  in 
the  rotunda  of  the  Education  Building 


AFTERNOON  SESSION 


INVOCATION  BY  THE  RIGHT  REVEREND 
RICHARD  H.  NELSON 

Bishop  of  Albany 

Almighty  God,  who  art  the  Fountain  of  all  wisdom, 
we  beseech  Thee  to  send  Thy  blessing  upon  the  Gov- 
ernor and  the  people  of  this  State,  as  well  as  upon  the 
officers,  teachers  and  pupils  of  this  University,  and  to 
grant  that,  walking  in  Thy  truth,  they  may  come  to  ever- 
lasting life. 

In  particular,  we  ask  Thy  favor  toward  this  Thy 
servant  who  is  entering  upon  his  duties  as  President  of 
the  University  and  Commissioner  of  Education.  Give 
to  him  a  wise  and  understanding  heart  that  he  may  lead 
Thy  people  to  the  waters  of  knowledge  and  guide  them 
unto  righteousness  of  life.  All  which  we  ask  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Amen. 


ADDRESS  BY  ST  CLAIR  McKELWAY 
Chancellor  of  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York  bids  you 
welcome.  We  are  assembled  on  a  notable  occasion  for 
a  significant  purpose,  to  complete  and  to  attest  the  inau- 
guration of  the  President  of  the  University  and  the  State 
Commissioner  of  Education.  Doctor  Finley  was  chosen 
long  months  ago.  Under  usual  circumstances  his  duties 
would  have  begun  when  he  was  elected. 

Unusual  circumstances,  however,  intervened  to  prevent 
his  immediate  assumption  of  his  duties.  He  was  honor- 
ably bound  to  complete  the  decade  of  service  in  the 
field  from  which  he  had  been  translated  to  his  present 
office  by  the  unanimous  suffrage  of  our  Board.  He  was 
chosen  after  careful  consideration  of  other  eminent  men. 
They  themselves  recognize  that  we  have  made  a  choice 
which  commends  itself  to  instructors  at  home  and  abroad. 

This  was  not  effected  before  a  call  that  could  not  be 
withstood  was  laid  on  him  and  on  us.  On  him  and 
Seth  Low  was  devolved  the  duty  to  undertake  the  ac- 
complishment of  peace  in  our  industrial  world.  That 
peace  in  our  State  in  that  world  has  been  signed  and 
sealed.  The  hope  and  belief  is  that  the  example  will  tell 
in  other  States.  The  broader  faith  is  that  the  example 
will  be  a  help  and  a  hope  to  industrial  peace  and  justice 
at  least  within  the  whole  Union. 

Our  Board  is  gratified  that  these  two  arbitrators  of 
peace  with  justice  and  of  justice  with  peace,  neither  of 
whom  would  have  served  without  the  other,  have  returned 


18  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

bearing  their  shields,  and  not  on  them.  If  their  task  de- 
ferred Doctor  Finley's  assumption  of  his  educational  duty 
to  the  State,  its  postponement  coincided  with  the  nation's 
and  the  word's  introduction  to  him  to  a  role  of  benefit  to 
the  race,  and  with  his  introduction  to  a  work  agreeable 
and  grateful  to  men.  That  experience  has  identified  him 
as  a  factor  of  an  industrial  education  larger  than  books 
and  broader  than  schools  and  stronger  than  politically 
formulated  government.  The  precedent  is  invaluable  and 
unimpeachable. 

Other  men  might  have  wrought  the  same  deed.  These 
two,  of  whom  one  was  our  representative,  did  perform  it 
and  we  are  glad  others  were  not  asked  to  perform  it. 
We  rejoice  that  Doctor  Finley  can  begin  with  us  under 
the  impact  of  the  distinction  of  the  work  which  can  never 
pass  from  him. 

We  are  glad  to  hail  his  return.  We  rejoice  to  ac- 
knowledge the  fidelity  of  every  deputy  commissioner  and 
every  head  of  a  department  and  of  every  other  employee 
here  to  the  work  entrusted  to  each.  We  have  been  sus- 
tained by  the  assurance  that  every  university,  every  col- 
lege, every  public  school,  every  academy,  and  every 
organization  and  every  city,  county  and  township  factor 
in  our  State  has  cooperated  with  us  in  the  absence  of 
Doctor  Finley  and  welcomes  his  return  to  his  duties.  He 
has  wrought  in  what  has  been  rated  to  be  outside  the 
set  limits  of  organized  education,  but  he  has  expanded 
those  limits  to  cover  industrial  and  humanitarian  fields 
with  which  education  must  hereafter  be  identified,  if  it 
would  be  continued  by  the  will  of  the  people,  by  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  people  and  by  the  voted  resources  of  the 
people. 


Inauguration  Proceedings  1  9 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  acknowledge  for  this  State  oc- 
casion the  responses  sent  out  in  the  name  of  the  Depart- 
ment. They  were  sent  to  eminent  educators  of  our  na- 
tional government,  of  our  sister  commonwealths  and  of 
the  Dominion,  as  well  as  to  foreign  governments.  Such 
as  could  come  will  tender  their  words  of  greeting  and 
congratulation.  Such  as  could  not  have  forwarded  ex- 
pressions attesting  their  regret  that  they  can  not  and  their 
best  wishes  for  the  occasion  to  signalize  which  we  are 
gathered.  The  published  records  of  our  Board  will  con- 
tain every  utterance  here  spoken.  Those  records  will  be 
procurable  to  all  here  or  dispatched  to  those  who  found 
they  could  not  be  here.  We  are  glad  our  Governor  and 
other  State  officials  can  be  with  us  and  that  representatives 
of  sister  governments  in  notable  instances  can  here  be 
greeted  and  heard  by  all  of  us. 

I  shall  not  and  I  should  not  longer  stand  between  them 
and  you,  but  shall  be  content  to  develop  the  program  de- 
vised for  this  auspicious  conjunction  of  inauguration  and 
congratulation  on  this  eventful  day. 


ADDRESS  BY  NICHOLAS  MURRAY 
BUTLER 

President  of  Columbia  University 

IN  BEHALF  OF  THE  UNIVERSITIES  AND  COLLEGES 
It  seems  but  yesterday  that  the  representatives  of  every 
type  of  educational  activity  in  the  State  and  in  the  nation 
assembled  in  this  hall  to  dedicate  to  its  high  purpose  this 
Education  Building  and  to  congratulate  the  Commissioner 
of  Education  whose  iron  will  and  inflexible  purpose  were 
chiefly  responsible  for  it.  Today  we  gather  here  again 
to  greet  his  successor  in  office  and  to  offer  assurance  of 
hearty  support,  earnest  cooperation,  and  sincere  good  will, 
as  he  sets  his  hand  to  a  new  and  weighty  task.  We  count 
with  confidence  upon  the  continuance  and  extension,  un- 
der his  administration,  of  those  policies,  already  well 
established,  that  have  made  this  State  an  example  to  its 
fellows.  We  count  in  particular  upon  the  continued 
maintenance  of  standards  without  fear  or  favor;  upon  the 
continuance  of  the  complete  exclusion  of  the  influences  of 
partisan  politics  from  the  school  system  in  all  its  parts; 
and  upon  the  continuance  of  the  practice  of  turning  neither 
to  the  right  nor  to  the  left  because  some  measure  of  passing 
popularity  or  some  shouts  of  acclaim  are  to  be  gained 
thereby. 

There  is  no  more  sure  measure  of  a  people's  progress 
in  civilization  than  the  growth  of  their  power  of  self- 
control  and  self-discipline.  The  basis  for  the  self-control 
and  the  self-discipline  of  a  democratic  people  must  be  laid 
in  their  homes  and  in  the  schools.  If  the  schools  fail  in 
this,  there  is  no  adequate  compensation  they  can  offer  in 
the  form  of  learning  or  instruction.  The  test  of  success 


22  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

in  a  school  system,  and  the  test  of  success  in  the  work  of 
a  college  or  a  university,  is  not  its  size,  however  great; 
or  its  wealth,  however  large;  or  its  equipment,  however 
striking.  The  test  is  the  quality  of  the  men  and  women 
that  it  trains  and  sends  out  for  service  to  the  common- 
wealth. How  much  a  State  spends  upon  education  is 
an  item  for  the  curious  or  for  the  collector  of  statistics. 
What  the  State  gets  in  return  for  what  it  spends  upon 
education  is  the  vitally  important  matter.  More  than  ever 
before  in  its  history  this  nation  today  is  in  need  of  men 
—  strong,  high-principled,  clear-sighted  men  —  who  can 
so  shape  and  guide  public  policy,  and  who  can  so  form 
and  determine  public  character,  that  the  great  purposes  of 
the  nation's  builders  and  the  highest  ideals  of  their  chil- 
dren's children  shall  be  achieved. 

To  run  with  the  crowd  is  a  pleasant,  and  sometimes  a 
profitable,  form  of  exercise.  It  is  frequently  amusing ;  but 
it  has  in  it  more  of  moral  and  intellectual  debilitation  than 
any  other  human  occupation  or  avocation.  To  observe 
with  scientific  precision,  to  report  with  scientific  accuracy, 
and  to  think  with  logical  correctness,  are  the  chief  needs 
of  the  educational  guide  of  today.  We  have  suffered 
overmuch  from  platitudes  in  education,  and  we  have  paid 
our  full  homage  to  misguided  and  superficial  flattery  of 
schools  and  school  systems,  when  searching  and  construc- 
tive criticism  was  what  the  public  interest  demanded.  The 
time  has  certainly  come  when  we  must  leave  off  tickling 
our  own  vanity  and  arousing  the  scornful  smiles  of  other 
peoples  by  shouting  loudly  that  our  schools,  our  colleges, 
our  universities,  are  the  best  in  the  world;  that  our  ex- 
penditures for  education  are  the  largest  ever  known;  and 
that,  looking  at  all  the  peoples  of  civilization  dispassion- 
ately—  which  dispassionateness  we  gladly  admit  —  no 


Inauguration  Proceedings  23 

one  of  them  is  in  any  way  the  equal  of  ourselves !  When 
Mr  Lowell  was  writing  his  charming  essay  on  a  certain 
condescension  in  foreigners,  I  have  always  felt  that  his 
sly  humor  left  in  the  back  of  his  head  an  unwritten  essay 
on  a  certain  self-satisfaction  in  ourselves. 

Persistent,  searching,  constructive  criticism  is  what 
American  education  most  needs  today.  We  must  ask  not 
only  whether  what  we  are  doing  is  worth  while  in  itself, 
but  toward  what  goal  it  is  tending.  We  must  reexamine, 
in  the  light  of  history  and  of  much  experience,  those  proc- 
esses and  those  formulas  that  are  usually  accepted  with- 
out question  because  they  are  familiar.  We  must  face 
the  future  with  the  past  in  our  hands  and  not  spend  too 
much  time  in  looking  backward. 

In  the  State  of  New  York,  all  educational  agencies 
and  instrumentalities  are  fortunate  in  being  gathered  to- 
gether in  one  great  system  of  administration  and  supervi- 
sion. Thereby  opportunities  for  cooperation  and  mutual 
understanding  are  multiplied,  while  occasions  for  friction 
and  conflict  are  diminished.  From  the  Regents  of  the 
University  and  from  the  Commissioner  of  Education  the 
schools,  colleges  and  universities  ask,  first  of  all  and 
chiefly,  for  sympathy  and  for  understanding.  Education 
can  not  be  cast  in  a  single  mold  and  remain  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  a  free  people.  It  must  be  so  flexible,  so  many- 
sided,  so  rich  in  opportunity,  that  no  talent  is  lost  through 
lack  of  care  or  occasion  for  use.  It  is  the  genius  of  all 
Anglo-Saxon  civilization,  as  it  is  that  of  the  English  com- 
mon law,  to  meet  situations  as  they  arise  with  such  wisdom 
as  is  at  hand,  and  not  to  attempt  to  forecast  all  possible  con- 
tingencies and  to  provide  for  them  by  rigid  rule.  It  is  in 
this  spirit  that  the  educational  system  of  a  great  state 
should  be  administered  and  supervised.  It  is  the  spirit  of 


24  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

sympathy,  the  spirit  of  tolerance,  the  spirit  of  understand- 
ing, the  spirit  of  insight,  that  make  central  administration 
and  supervision  real  and  vital.  It  is  upon  such  a  spirit 
that  the  colleges  and  universities  of  the  State  count  with 
confidence  in  the  administration  that  opens  today  under 
such  happy  auspices.  To  its  head  we  bring  cordial  greet- 
ing and  assurance  of  our  united  support  and  cooperation. 


ADDRESS  BY  FRANK  S.  FOSDICK 

Principal  of  Masten  Park  High  School,  Buffalo 

IN  BEHALF  OF  THE  SECONDARY  SCHOOLS 

It  would  be  a  superfluity  before  such  an  audience,  rep- 
resenting as  it  does  the  best  scholarship  of  our  State,  to 
speak  on  the  technisms  of  our  work.  It  would  imply  a 
sad  lack  of  judgment  to  dwell  upon  educational  methods, 
of  which  it  can  be  truthfully  said,  as  of  all  systems  that 
adhere  to  a  hard  and  fixed  order  of  procedure,  some  are 
good,  some  are  bad  and  some,  we  might  almost  say  a  ma- 
jority, are  indifferent.  It  would  be  entirely  foreign  to  the 
spirit  and  intent  of  this  afternoon's  exercises  to  discuss 
laboriously  the  latest  reports  from  the  fields  of  psychology 
or  eugenics  and  endeavor  to  satisfy  our  mental  machinery 
as  to  what  stand  we  should  take.  This  occasion  is  not 
for  such  wearisome  tasks.  Without  detriment  they  can 
be  omitted  for  a  time. 

We  are  assembled  to  celebrate  what  we  believe,  what 
we  know,  is  a  most  auspicious  event  in  the  long  and  hon- 
orable history  of  our  State  Education  Department.  Last 
spring  a  great  director  in  the  domain  of  education  passed 
into  the  silence,  bequeathing  to  all  a  rich  legacy  of  faith- 
ful service.  As  Commissioner  working  with  the  Honor- 
able Board  of  Regents,  he  left  the  great  department  of 
which  he  was  the  head  so  well  organized  that  his  depar- 
ture caused  scarcely  a  ripple  on  the  surface  of  its  activities. 
Today  we  welcome  a  new  leader  who  assumes  not  only 
the  duties  of  the  former  but  also  added  responsibilities, 
and  it  is  most  fitting  that  representatives  of  the  three  divi- 
sions of  the  educational  bureau  should  be  present  and 


26  The  University  of  the  State  of  Nero  York 

voice  their  feelings  with  expressions  of  good  will  and  al- 
legiance.     *  The  king  is  dead,  long  live  the  king." 

I  deem  it  a  great  honor  to  represent  at  this  time  the 
secondary  schools  of  the  State  and  I  am  proud  of  my  con- 
nection with  them.  Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  gram- 
mar schools  and  colleges  of  the  country  —  and  no  one 
has  a  higher  regard  for  them  than  I  —  there  still  faces 
us  the  indisputable  fact  that  the  four  years  spent  in  our 
high  schools,  at  an  age  the  most  impressionable  and  the 
most  dangerous,  mean  more  to  our  boys  and  girls  than 
any  other  period  of  their  lives.  There  is  no  more  perplex- 
ingly  fascinating  work  to  be  found  under  the  skies  than 
that  which  meets  us  every  morning,  no  work  that  calls  for 
greater  sanity  and  downright  common  sense.  To  gain  the 
confidence  of  our  pupils,  to  enter  into  their  lives,  to  be  in- 
terested in  everything  that  concerns  them,  to  stimulate  or 
repress  as  their  best  good  demands,  require  a  mental 
and  moral  discernment  that  is  not  always  obtainable  — 
and  we  say,  often  with  a  sense  of  impending  failure, 
"  Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?  "  But  a  careful  sur- 
vey of  the  hundreds  of  high  schools  in  the  State  will  re- 
veal the  encouraging  fact  that  the  general  uplift  is  re- 
markable and  the  influences  that  tend  to  civic  as  well  as 
to  individual  uprightness  can  not  be  easily  estimated.  Not 
that  I  would  have  you  think  for  a  moment  that  they  are 
perfect  or  do  not  need  improvement.  It  would  be  strange 
indeed  if  it  were  otherwise.  There  are  and  always  will 
be  differences  of  opinion  about  some  of  the  policies  of  the 
State  Department;  there  will  be  laxity  in  discipline  and 
instruction;  lack  of  harmony  among  the  teachers,  which 
is  so  fatal  to  success;  a  perversion  of  the  so-called  school 
spirit;  questions  about  the  scope  and  general  make-up  of 
the  examinations.  These  need  not  cause  anxiety  since  we 


Inauguration  Proceedings  27 

know  that  the  directing  mind  is  in  close  sympathy  with 
our  aims,  our  problems,  our  hindrances;  that  he  is  pos- 
sessed of  broad  vision,  a  keen  judgment  and  can  furnish 
a  soothing  balm  or  a  stiff  tonic  as  the  occasion  demands. 
Surely  the  high  schools  have  great  reason  to  congratulate 
themselves  upon  the  good  fortune  that  has  come  to  them. 

But  there  are  others  in  the  State  who  should  be  equally 
glad  today,  and  these  are  the  parents.  The  high  schools 
come  into  closer  contact  with  them  than  do  either  of  the 
other  classes  of  schools  that  are  so  fittingly  represented 
here  today.  When  the  little  ones  first  started  out  for 
school,  aside  from  the  momentary  sadness  over  the  fact 
that  they  were  growing  older,  parents  gave  themselves 
little  uneasiness  about  them.  They  were  of  that  age 
where,  in  a  sensible  household,  they  were  not  denied 
that  inestimable  right  of  prompt  obedience  and  the  nor- 
mal child  is  ready  to  render  this  when  parents  and  teachers 
are  reasonable  and  live  according  to  that  fundamental 
principle  that  he  who  can  not  govern  himself  is  abso- 
lutely unfit  to  govern  others.  When  the  children  went 
to  college  and  the  inevitable  break  in  the  family  circle 
came,  they  had  had  four  years  of  preparatory  work ;  their 
habits  of  thought,  their  methods  of  study,  their  general  out- 
look on  life  and  its  activities  were  fairly  well  fixed.  They 
had  reached  either  the  last  years  of  adolescence  or  the 
beginnings  of  maturity  and  were  not  so  susceptible  to  the 
changes  that  affected  them  in  earlier  years. 

But  in  the  high  school  our  pupils  are  neither  adults  nor 
little  children  and  the  physical  changes  that  obtain  to  this 
period  bring  mental  disturbances  that  must  be  handled 
with  consummate  skill.  In  addition  to  that,  we  draw 
our  pupils  from  every  stratum  of  society.  There  as- 
semble together  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  children  of 


28  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

native-born  Americans  and  those  whose  parents  came 
from  across  the  seas.  With  different  ideals,  in  many 
cases  without  any  well-defined  standard  of  an  upright, 
courteous  life,  they  flock  to  us  across  the  chasm  that  sep- 
arates grammar  school  from  high  school,  for  instruction 
and  guidance.  And  the  parents  begin  to  flock  to  us, 
too,  for  they  are  soon  facing  the  real  problems  in  their 
children's  lives.  I  venture  the  assertion  that  more  parents 
whose  hearts  are  suddenly  awakened  and  made  solicitous 
about  their  boys  and  girls  visit  the  high  schools  than  ever 
go  to  grammar  school  or  college.  Your  "  Norman  "  or 
your  "  Elizabeth  "  did  well  before  coming  to  us  —  were 
stars  in  fact  —  at  least  that  is  what  you  tell  us  and  we 
believe  you.  But  now  they  are  doing  poorly  and  what 
is  the  trouble?  The  shadow  on  father's  face  deepens 
as  you  tell  him  what  you  know  and  mother's  eyes  glisten 
with  unshed  tears  when  you  kindly  reveal  to  her  the  truth. 
This  happens  all  over  the  State  and  the  common  interest 
of  parents  and  teachers  draws  them  very  closely  together 
as  they  become  one  in  aim,  one  in  hope  and,  in  a  majority 
of  cases,  thank  God,  one  in  fulfilled  desire.  It  follows 
then  that  every  effort  to  augment  the  efficiency  of  the 
high  school,  to  add  to  its  cohesive  power,  to  increase  its 
attractiveness  and  influence  touches  the  hearts  of  parents 
and  they  join  with  the  rest  of  us  today  in  expressions  of 
gladness  that  the  new  President  of  The  University  of 
the  State  of  New  York  wishes  as  earnestly  as  do  they, 
that  our  pupils,  their  children,  may  get  all  that  is  possible 
out  of  their  high  school  courses. 

Doctor  Finley,  in  behalf  of  the  high  schools  of  the 
State,  whose  representative  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  I  bring 
to  you  messages  of  good  will,  assurances  of  steadfast  alle- 
giance, heartfelt  pledges  of  unswerving  loyalty.  We 


Inauguration  Proceedings  29 

deem  it  providential  that  you  are  here.  Journalism  with 
its  well-nigh  unlimited  powers  could  not  retain  you. 
"  Old  Nassau,"  great  in  her  attractiveness  as  she  is  and 
always  will  be,  could  not  hold  you.  The  metropolis 
that  binds  to  itself  so  many  men,  young  and  old,  with  the 
charm  of  its  magnificent  opportunities  was  obliged  to 
loosen  its  grasp  upon  you,  notwithstanding  your  great 
successes  there.  You,  with  your  mental  acumen,  your 
resolute  personality,  belonged  to  the  Empire  State  and  we 
are  profoundly  grateful  that  the  call  to  service,  service 
which  is  the  distinguishing  spirit  of  this  twentieth  century, 
met  with  your  self-abnegating  response  —  "  Here  am  I, 


send  me." 


ADDRESS  BY  A.  R.  BRUBACHER 

Superintendent  of  Schools,  Schenectady 

IN  BEHALF  OF  THE  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS 
I  count  it  a  distinguished  honor  to  speak  for  elementary 
education  today,  when  you  take  command  of  the  educa- 
tional forces  of  New  York  State.  This  is  an  auspicious 
occasion.  It  is  a  new  beginning  and  beginnings  invari- 
ably suggest  foundations.  Elementary  education  is  the 
foundation  upon  which  all  teaching  rests.  In  it,  there- 
fore, we  expect  stability,  permanence;  it  gives  us  the 
feeling  of  worthwhileness.  The  beginning  of  elementary 
education,  furthermore,  is  at  the  source  where  the  school 
draws  from  the  home.  Here  we  meet  the  home  with  all 
its  influences.  The  elementary  school  carries  on  the  edu- 
cating stream  as  it  comes  over  from  the  home;  not  a  new 
stream,  not  a  fountain  in  itself,  but  a  continuation  of  what 
was  begun  de  novo  by  the  mother  at  the  cradle. 

The  home  under  certain  conditions  may  be  self-suffi- 
cient as  an  educating  agency.  Such,  I  believe,  was  the 
home  of  the  American  Indian,  for  example.  The  father 
and  mother  could  transmit  to  the  youthful  Indian  boy 
and  girl  all  the  inheritances  of  the  tribe.  The  domestic 
relations  and  duties,  the  tribal  customs  and  tribal  duties, 
the  tribal  mysteries,  the  tribal  spirit,  in  brief,  the  entire 
social  heritage  was  efficiently  handed  down  by  the 
home  without  the  intermediary  school.  The  youth  was 
thus  admitted  into  his  group,  fully  equipped  to  do  his 
duty  as  a  social  unit.  This  home  education  was,  how- 
ever, purely  social  rather  than  industrial,  and  the  familiar 
story  of  Indian  life  shows  that  it  produced  a  race  con- 


32  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

sciousness,  a  tribal  solidarity,  that  is  amazing  to  our  con- 
ventional scholasticism.  Those  methods  seldom  or  never 
failed  to  make  good  Indians,  Indians  that  were  loyal  to 
their  tribe  and  nation,  brave  warriors,  cunning  followers 
of  the  warpath.  Those  educational  methods  produced 
almost  perfect  social  efficiency  from  the  Indian  point  of 
view.  May  we  not  learn  something  from  it,  therefore, 
that  will  teach  us  how  to  make  good  American  citizens 
from  our  point  of  view? 

That  part  of  education  which  may  be  included  under 
the  term  "  training,"  training  for  skill  of  hand,  accuracy, 
skill  in  community  activities,  was  likewise  given  by  the 
primitive  home.  Woodcraft,  habits  of  wild  animals,  the 
cunning  of  the  hunter,  the  duties  and  hardships  of  the 
warpath,  weaving,  basketry,  the  care  of  campfire  and 
tepee,  that  individual  efficiency  which  constituted,  col- 
lectively, the  tribal  skill  and  cunning,  what  we  may  call 
with  seeming  anachronism  a  primitive  industrialism,  was 
handed  down  from  father  to  son  and  mother  to  daughter. 
This  is  life  in  simplest  terms. 

But  life  does  not  long  remain  so  simple.  Human 
progress  has  become  written  history.  Human  joy  and 
suffering,  human  aspiration  and  passion,  have  created 
literature.  The  struggle  for  existence  has  developed  ma- 
chinery. Commerce  necessitates  intricate  processes.  The 
heritage  of  the  race  has  imbedded  itself  in  books.  Edu- 
cation has  become  a  matter  of  technic.  Training  for 
industry  and  commerce  has  to  do  with  formulas  and  intri- 
cate mechanical  devices.  The  modern  civilized  home 
necessarily  fails  to  provide  this  education  and  training. 
Industry  is  now  so  minutely  specialized  that  one  home  can 
practise  only  a  small  fractional  part  of  it.  Consequently 
the  home  is  unable  to  give  much  if  any  of  the  training  for 


Inauguration  Proceedings  33 

industry.  And  much  of  the  education  required  to  guar- 
antee social  efficiency  is  likewise  beyond  the  powers  and 
abilities  of  parents.  There  has  been,  therefore,  a  con- 
tinual taking  over  of  responsibility  from  the  home  by  the 
school  as  an  institution.  So  pronounced  has  this  move- 
ment been,  that  we  sometimes  charge  the  home  with 
neglect  and  complain  that  the  school  attempts  too  much. 
Certain  it  is,  that  the  school  is  now  an  indispensable  sup- 
plement to  the  home  and  in  many  cases  it  has  become  a 
substitute  for  the  home.  The  school  as  a  supplement 
of  the  home  has  absorbed,  and  usurped,  and  relieved  the 
educational  responsibilities  of  the  home.  It  depends  upon 
your  point  of  view : 

1  The  school  first  of  all  relieved  the  home   of  the 
teaching  of  all  those  conventional  and  technical  matters 
which  have  to  do  with  the  mechanics  of  education  — 
reading,  number,  geography,  history,  art,  science. 

2  It  has  assumed  a  measure  of  responsibility  regarding 
the  health  of  children,  partly  in  self-defense,  partly  in 
relief  of  the  unfortunate  home  conditions.     It  has  recently 
been  said  that  parents  are  so  absorbed  in  the  struggle  for 
social  and  material  advantage  that  they  fail  to  notice 
that  their  children  can  not  see,  that  they  can  not  hear, 
that  they  can  not  breathe,  that  they  do  not  eat  as  children 
should  and  what  they  should. 

3  It  has  accepted  responsibility  to  teach  the  art  of 
homemaking,  because  the  home  often  can  not,  sometimes 
will  not,  teach  it. 

4  It  has  assumed   responsibility   to  teach   trades  be- 
cause  the   modern  organization   of  industry   and  labor 
makes  it  impossible  for  the  home  to  do  so. 

5  It  assumes  to  give  occupational  direction  because  the 
home  can  not  readily  secure  necessary  data  to  this  end. 


34  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

6  It  is  now  considering  its  duties  toward  the  child  in 
matter  of  sex  hygiene.     If  the  home  can  not,  or  will  not, 
the  school  will  teach  sex  hygiene  in  some  form.     It  can 
at  any  rate  teach  the  biological  basis  of  sex. 

7  The  school  has  assumed  joint  responsibility  with  the 
home  for  the  education  for  citizenship. 

I  believe,  Mr  Commissioner,  that  the  school  is  justified 
in  accepting  these  responsibilities.  It  could  not,  without 
dereliction  of  duty,  give  up  a  single  function.  It  may 
have  unduly  overloaded  its  curriculum.  It  has  over- 
loaded it.  But  the  remedy  lies  not  in  subtraction  of 
function.  I  believe  the  remedy  lies  rather  in  the  read- 
justment of  detail.  I  am  bold  to  suggest  two  points 
where  elementary  education  is  weak  in  the  hope  that  your 
happy  administration,  born  this  day,  may  set  itself  the 
high  task  of  readjustment  and  perhaps  new  definition. 

In  the  first  place,  we  overemphasize  the  mechanics  of 
education.  The  elementary  school  has  placed  undue 
emphasis  upon  the  mechanical  processes  of  education.  I 
mean  reading,  writing,  number,  drawing,  memorizing, 
have  been  set  up  as  ends  in  themselves.  This  is  a  natural 
consequence  but  not  a  necessary  or  wise  one.  Reading  and 
writing  are  mechanical  processes  which  prepare  persons 
for  education;  they  are  the  tools  of  education,  but  they 
are  not  themselves  the  end  sought  —  knowledge.  Arith- 
metic is  the  mechanical  basis  for  computation  and  reason- 
ing. As  an  end  in  itself,  it  is  merely  a  means  of  traffic. 
Its  educational  value  lies  in  the  power  of  reason  which 
it  fosters.  Or,  to  quote  from  the  Republic  of  Plato, 
"how  elegant  it  is  (arithmetic)  if  one  applies  it  for  the 
sake  of  knowledge,  and  not  to  make  a  traffic  by  it." 
Geography,  merely  used  as  a  means  of  location,  as  earth- 
feature,  with  no  reference  to  human  relation,  is  purely 


Inauguration  Proceedings  35 

mechanical.  It  is  an  instrument  of  education,  but  it  is 
not  itself  education.  Drawing  is  merely  manual  dex- 
terity and  as  such  is  only  training,  not  education.  His- 
tory, treated  as  a  record  of  events,  as  a  series  of  national 
achievements,  devoted  largely  to  chronology,  is  mechan- 
ical, and  as  such  merely  outlines  a  skeleton,  giving  it 
neither  body  nor  life.  As  such  it  is  not  education. 

Teaching  these  mechanical  features  of  education  has 
some  value  but  it  is  poor  stuff  at  best.  It  gives  a  cer- 
tain expertness  in  the  use  of  these  tools,  but  it  gives  no 
grand  purpose,  no  ultimate  life  direction.  All  this  will 
be  changed  when  we  recognize  these  processes  as  proc- 
esses and  strive  for  knowledge  through  them.  Through 
reading  we  must  reach  through  literature  to  life.  Through 
the  science  of  number  we  must  strive  to  gain  the  power 
of  reason  and  so  attain  knowledge.  Through  geography 
we  must  teach  man's  relation  to  earth-nature,  and  the 
dependence  and  interdependence  between  social  groups. 
Through  history  we  must  teach  human  causation  and 
human  responsibility  as  elements  in  national  and  racial 
progress.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  here  that  the  best 
teaching  is  now  humanizing  the  curriculum  of  the  elemen- 
tary school.  But  public  opinion  is  still  clamoring  for  the 
material  husks  in  the  name  of  reading,  writing  and  arith- 
metic. The  real  spiritual  value  behind  the  process  is 
largely  lost.  I  long,  therefore,  for  a  new  definition  of 
elementary  education  which  shall  formulate  for  the  com- 
mon man  that  simple  philosophy  of  life  which  the  mini- 
mum of  education  can  give. 

In  the  second  place,  we  need  a  doctrine  of  duty. 
Elementary  education  is  as  yet  almost  wholly  uncon- 
scious that  manners  and  morals  are  a  legitimate  part  of 
its  field.  The  schools  are  still  exclusively  interested  in 
2 


36  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

individual  efficiency.  In  fact  efficiency  as  applied  to 
the  product  of  the  schools,  signifies  the  ability  of  boys 
and  girls  to  make  a  living.  It  has  little  or  no  regard  for 
their  ability  to  perform  the  many  necessary  duties  in  their 
social  group.  Whether  we  intended  it  or  not,  efficiency 
means  ability  to  get  ahead  industrially  at  all  cost.  Effi- 
ciency regards  individual  success  without  regard  for  com- 
mon welfare,  sometimes  to  the  detriment  of  the  common- 
wealth. Our  ideal  of  efficiency  is  actually  destroying 
social  efficiency,  because  we  teach  no  doctrine  of  duties. 

The  Indian  youth  became  an  efficient  member  of  his 
social  group  because  he  learned  thoroughly  his  duties  to 
the  tribe.  Duty  became  a  habit  for  him.  His  faithful- 
ness to  these  duties  produced  the  characteristic  tribal 
solidarity  which  astounded  civilization.  We,  on  the  con- 
trary, teach  no  doctrine  of  duty  in  the  schools,  and  the 
home  is  not  notably  efficient  in  this  respect,  I  fear.  Be- 
tween an  exaggerated  conception  of  individual  efficiency 
and  this  neglect  to  teach  a  list  of  specific  duties  we  must 
approach  social  disintegration. 

Or  can  the  home  still  teach  this  necessary  basis  of 
social  ethics?  Can  it  teach  civic  duty?  Can  it  give  the 
basis  of  duty  so  as  to  produce  both  community  and 
national  solidarity?  What  are  the  facts  in  the  case? 

Capital  is  at  war  with  labor.  Antagonism  prevails 
between  these  two  component  parts  of  every  modern  com- 
munity, neither  being  ready  to  acknowledge  its  duty  to 
the  other  or  to  the  community  at  large. 

The  electorate  displays  great  lethargy.  Rarely  do 
we  have  more  than  60  per  cent  of  the  total  vote  cast; 
commonly  do  we  cast  only  85  per  cent  even  of  the  en- 
rolled vote.  This  indicates  an  ominous  disregard  for 
civic  duty,  a  gross  sin  in  a  democracy. 


Inauguration  Proceedings  37 

The  vote  is  still  to  some  extent  venal,  showing  a  low 
ethical  tone. 

Municipal  government  is  notoriously  inefficient,  and 
sometimes  corrupt.  The  electorate  is  unconscious  of  duty 
and  responsibility,  else  this  could  not  be. 

The  citizenship,  as  a  body,  lacks  civic  pride.  It  is 
still  insensible  of  slums,  of  improper  housing  conditions, 
of  vice,  and  too  often  of  poverty. 

Popular  amusement  demands  are  disgustingly  low, 
proving  a  low  community  morality  and  vulgarity  in 
manners. 

This  list  is  quite  sufficient  to  prove  that  the  home  does 
not  effectively  teach  either  social  or  civic  duty  and  that 
it  does  not  give  an  adequate  basis  of  manners  and  morals. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  assign  some  important  reasons  for  our 
present  low  ethical  state.  In  most  urban  communities  to- 
day 50  per  cent  of  the  homes  are  foreign,  thus  repre- 
senting the  varying  ethical  standards  of  from  two  to  a 
dozen  different  European  races  and  nations.  These 
races,  moreover,  have  left  behind  in  Europe  those  com- 
munity restraints,  those  national  and  legal  and  church  re- 
strictions which  tended  to  maintain  high  ethical  standards. 
These  restraints  are  inoperative  in  their  new  world  homes. 
In  a  considerable  number  of  cases,  this  new  world  home 
is  temporary,  a  matter  of  adventure.  The  family  will 
return  to  Europe.  At  best  then,  ethical  instability  is  a 
characteristic  of  these  foreign  homes.  By  leaving  the 
teaching  of  the  common  social  and  civic  duties  to  these 
homes,  we  leave  our  ethical  standards  as  a  nation  to  the 
uncertain  influences  of  Sicilian,  Slavonian,  Hungarian, 
Greek,  Polish  and  other  agencies.  We  may  as  well 
admit  it,  we  have  at  present  no  standards.  We  have  no 
American  manners,  morals,  or  ethics.  Every  large  city 


38  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

of  the  land  is  today  cosmopolitan  rather  than  American. 
In  the  course  of  time  we  shall  of  course  evolve  some  com- 
mon standard  out  of  the  present  anomalous  conditions, 
but  it  will  be  at  the  expense  of  much  that  is  worth  saving 
in  our  nineteenth  century  morality  and  subject  our  present 
institutions  to  tremendous  strain. 

But  even  the  American  home  as  a  type  is  not  teaching 
a  doctrine  of  duty  to  its  children.  It  is  a  notorious  fact, 
any  teacher  will  tell  you,  that  children  from  American 
homes  are  often  disobedient,  often  ill-mannered,  some- 
times disrespectful,  tardy,  usually  irreverent.  They  rec- 
ognize no  duty  to  others,  are  disrespectful  to  parents,  have 
little  regard  for  public  property,  assume  that  the  world 
owes  them  a  living;  life  is  conceived  by  them  to  be  a 
good  time. 

Here  then  is  another  case  where  the  home  can  no 
longer  do  its  duty  as  originally  conceived.  It  has  be- 
come impossible  for  the  home  to  make  good  Indians.  As 
the  school  has  recently  taken  over  the  teaching  of  home- 
making,  so  must  it  now  take  over  the  teaching  of  ethics 
and  the  sooner  we  do  it  the  better  for  the  country. 

Social  efficiency  absolutely  demands  of  the  elementary 
school  the  teaching  of  the  common  social  duties.  Each 
grade  of  children  can  be  taught  the  concrete  ethical  stand- 
ard suitable  to  its  age.  Beginning  with  duty  to  parents, 
teacher  and  schoolmates,  duty  to  the  weak,  aged,  help- 
less, we  can  go  on  to  teach  respect  for  public  property, 
for  holy  men  and  sacred  things ;  duty  to  state  and  nation, 
love  for  country  and  efficient  citizenship.  But  this  con- 
crete teaching  is  merely  a  beginning.  After  a  duty  is 
seen  in  the  concrete,  its  doctrine  must  be  formulated  and 
the  child  must  be  given  an  easy  rule  of  behavior  to  carry 
with  him  into  life. 


Inauguration  Proceedings  39 

I  look  forward,  therefore,  with  joyful  hope,  Mr  Com- 
missioner, to  the  time  when  you  will  seize  the  opportunity 
to  incorporate  in  the  body  of  instruction  of  every  ele- 
mentary school  of  this  State  a  course  in  ethics,  informal 
for  the  little  ones,  more  and  more  formal  for  the  older, 
always  based  upon  concrete  human  behavior.  Its  im- 
portance should  take  equal  rank  with  history  and  Eng- 
lish. Out  of  such  instruction  I  confidently  expect  to  see 
the  growth  of  a  new  civic  strength.  By  it  the  new  races 
in  our  midst  will  be  more  readily  assimilated;  common 
standards  of  good  manners  and  high  morality  will  be  es- 
tablished; and  through  it  the  State  of  New  York  will 
create  a  communal  solidarity  that  will  recall  the  beautiful 
racial  strength  which  we  call  cunning  in  the  American 
Indian,  but  which  will  be  the  basis  of  a  new  righteousness 
in  the  American  nation  that  is  to  be. 


ADDRESS  BY  CALVIN  N.  KENDALL 
Commissioner  of  Education  of  New  Jersey 

IN  BEHALF  OF  EDUCATIONAL  DEPARTMENTS  OF  OTHER 

STATES 

In  behalf  of  state  superintendents  and  commissioners 
of  education,  it  is  my  privilege  to  extend  greetings. 

Your  coming  to  this  office  is  an  event  not  only  in  New 
York,  but  an  event  in  which  very  many  persons  outside 
are  deeply  interested.  What  you  do  here,  the  ideals  you 
set  up,  your  success  in  their  accomplishment,  are  not  with- 
out  their  effect  in  other  and  even  distant  states. 

While  we  lack  a  national  system  of  education,  there 
are  numerous  forces  at  work  for  solidarity  of  educational 
interests.  When  one  state  gains,  all  may  profit.  We 
are  confident  that  today  our  assets  are  increased. 

At  a  time  when  educational  opinion  seems  to  be  un- 
settled, when  increased  responsibilities  are  being  thrown 
upon  the  schools,  when  the  need  of  intelligence  in  citizen- 
ship was  never  greater,  when  the  fine  faith  in  education 
was  never  stronger,  all  the  more  is  our  right  to  look  to 
New  York,  the  commanding  commonwealth,  for  leader- 
ship. No  greater  opportunity  in  education  exists  in 
America  than  is  yours,  Sir;  this  is  sober  language;  at 
least  this  is  the  opinion  of  those  of  us  who  look  on.  Nor 
are  we  forgetful  of  the  fine  achievements  already  made 
here. 

Those  of  us  who  work  in  similar  fields  believe  that  you, 
with  your  associates,  will  make  sound  and  permanent  con- 
tributions to  public  education.  In  consequence,  our  tasks 
may  not  be  easier,  but  they  may  be  more  intelligently 
done. 


42  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

Not  unmindful  of  what  has  been  done  here,  who  would 
not  wish  to  see  worked  out,  with  your  great  resources, 
plans  for  the  adequate  training  and  recognition  of  teach- 
ers; the  realization  of  the  possibilities  of  the  rural  school; 
ample  and  well-balanced  industrial  education;  the  effi- 
cient training  of  the  minority  as  well  as  the  majority  in 
both  city  and  country;  a  program  that  would  substantially 
recognize,  amidst  the  hurry  and  restlessness  of  contem- 
porary life,  the  value  of  spiritual  resources  as  capital  for 
the  individual;  means  for  educating  the  layman  to  a 
substantial  realization  that  the  good  and  comprehensive 
schools  he  demands  must  cost  a  great  deal  of  money? 

The  working  out  of  these  and  other  problems,  perhaps 
equally  great,  can  not  be  the  work  of  a  single  man,  how- 
ever competent  in  action;  of  a  single  year,  however  fruit- 
ful in  achievement;  of  a  single  legislative  session,  how- 
ever public-spirited  in  motive.  No  one  should  expect 
this,  for  in  educational  progress  allowances  must  be  made 
for  tradition,  for  public  opinion,  and  for  the  fact  that 
processes  in  education  are  not  always  susceptible  of  defi- 
nition or  measurement. 

But  there  is  an  old  saying  that  a  wise  man  will  make 
more  opportunities  than  he  finds.  We  believe  that  you 
are  that  wise  man. 

There  are  some  of  us  who  feel  that  your  willingness 
to  transfer  your  activities  to  the  field  of  elementary  edu- 
cation, as  did  also  your  distinguished  predecessor  in  office, 
is  an  indication  of  the  growing  appreciation  of  the  im- 
portance of  public  education  as  a  means  of  service  for 
highly  trained  men.  No  service  needs  able,  forceful  men 
more.  What  ordinary  public  work  presents  greater  op- 
portunities for  usefulness,  if  not  for  distinction? 


Inauguration  Proceedings  43 

It  is  a  long  way,  in  one  sense,  from  the  one-room 
school,  amidst  your  beautiful  hills  and  valleys,  to  the 
great  secondary  schools,  colleges  and  universities  in  the 
centers  of  population;  but  in  another  sense  the  way  is  not 
long,  for  each  of  these,  whether  conspicuous  or  incon- 
spicuous, makes  or  is  capable  of  making  its  own  contri- 
bution. 

And  the  work  is  with  the  multitude,  and  with  the 
multitude  young. 

Most  of  this  work  is  quiet,  of  the  sort  that  can  not  be 
heralded  in  newspapers,  but  it  is  none  the  less  steady, 
positive  and  effective.  In  the  aggregate,  the  sum  of  the 
daily,  hourly  contact  between  teachers  and  taught  is  by 
far  the  greatest  force  for  righteousness  and  well-being 
that  exists  in  this  or  in  any  other  state. 

Of  course  it  could  be  better.  No  one  knows  this  so 
well,  perhaps,  as  those  of  us  who  are  in  the  thick  of  it. 
It  is  the  comprehension  of  the  possibilities  of  the  schools, 
the  vision  of  their  resources,  yet  unworked,  that  makes 
educational  service  supremely  interesting.  In  the  differ- 
ence between  the  ideal  and  the  actual  is  the  opportunity. 

Possibly  some  such  unconscious  feeling  as  this  inspires 
you  as  you  take  this  office. 

Beyond  the  confines  of  this  notable  building,  which 
typifies  the  faith  of  your  people  in  education,  the  real  op- 
portunity lies  in  the  promotion  of  sound  and  efficient  edu- 
cation for  the  million  and  a  half  young  people  available 
for  education,  and  not  merely  for  some  of  them,  but  for 
all  of  them.  The  consciousness  of  your  accomplish- 
ments for  them,  imperfect  as  all  human  achievements 
must  be,  will  perhaps  afford  you  the  most  durable  satis- 
factions amidst  the  perplexities  and  burdens,  and  even 


44  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

the  honors  which  attach  themselves  to  large  administra- 
tive positions  in  education. 

You  come  to  your  work  with  a  breadth  of  experience 
and  training  which,  with  your  real  human  qualities,  will 
compel  success;  such  is  our  opinion. 

As  a  native  of  this  State,  educated  in  its  schools,  whose 
interest  therefore  in  this  occasion  is  not  merely  academic 
or  professional,  it  is  my  privilege  to  extend  congratula- 
tions to  you  on  behalf  of  those  engaged  elsewhere  in  work 
similar  to  your  own  .here,  and  to  extend  also  congratula- 
tions, just  as  sincere,  to  the  people  of  this  State,  that  the 
leadership  of  their  great  interests  of  public  education  falls 
today  into  such  competent  hands. 


ADDRESS  BY  WILLIAM  CHURCH  OSBORN 

IN  BEHALF  OF  THE  CITIZENS  OF  THE  STATE 

The  Indian  League  of  the  Five  Nations  founded  its 
successful  policy  upon  assemblages  of  the  sachems,  chiefs 
and  people,  to  discuss  matters  of  public  concern.  With 
easy  fancy  we  may  say  that  to  us,  their  pale  face  inherit- 
ors, has  gone  forth  the  white  wampum  and  that  we  are 
assembled  in  general  council  in  our  long  house,  not  five 
nations  and  meager  numbers  but  as  the  many  peoples  and 
many  millions  that  comprise  the  complicated  fabric  of 
the  State  of  New  York. 

We  are  here  to  elevate  a  sachem  for  the  teaching  of 
our  young  men  and  maidens  and  our  talk  is  of  our  chil- 
dren and  our  State,  for  the  children  of  today  are  the  state 
of  tomorrow. 

By  the  intimation  of  your  program  I  am  here  to  repre- 
sent the  people  of  the  State.  In  doing  so  it  would  be 
easy  for  me  to  occupy  my  time  and  the  afternoon  in  praise 
of  the  great  educational  institutions  developed  by  your 
Regents  and  by  the  untiring  efforts  of  that  great  educator 
and  rugged  character,  the  late  Dr  Andrew  S.  Draper. 

These  are  progressive  times,  however,  and  we  men  and 
women  of  the  Empire  State  do  not  rest  satisfied  with  our 
achievements ;  we  go  forward  toward  the  light,  with  cour- 
age, our  spirits  aflame  with  the  "  divine  discontent." 
Hence  I  shall  be  recreant  to  my  charge  if  I  speak  not 
plainly  of  those  conditions  of  our  educational  system  which 
need  consideration,  but  I  beg  you  to  believe  that  my 
words  are  "the  faithful  wounds  of  a  friend."  We 
approve  our  Department  of  Education  and  mean  to  sup- 
port and  sustain  it  with  vigor  and  with  liberality. 


46  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

The  Department  of  Education  has  the  defect  of  its 
virtues.  It  has  built  up  a  magnificent  system  of  educa- 
tion and  it  may  well  say,  "  Why  change  that  which  is  so 
good?"  Yet  if  you  consider  the  needs  of  our  people, 
and  the  response  of  this  Department,  you  will  feel  per- 
haps with  me  that  there  is  danger  that  the  Department 
will  regard  its  system  as  in  itself  a  permanent  objective  in- 
stead of  as  a  transitory  means  to  meet  our  various  and 
shifting  needs.  I  think  that  the  Department  lacks  adap- 
tability to  the  special  needs  of  special  cases;  that  it  does 
not  sufficiently  regard  the  variations  in  educational  policy 
required  by  local  interests;  that  it  applies  its  system  too 
generally  to  all  classes  of  people  forgetting  or  overlook- 
ing the  fact  that  the  training  which  is  best  for  industrial 
elements  of  our  population  may  not  fit  the  rural  districts 
and  that  few  need  fitting  for  the  scholastic  life  though  the 
opportunity  should  be  open  to  all.  There  is  a  tendency 
not  to  move  with  the  great  movements  of  popular  thought 
and  a  willingness  to  wait  until  the  public  consciousness 
has  insisted  upon  changes  instead  of  taking  the  natural 
position  of  leadership  which  its  central  authority  entails. 

For  example,  if  you  examine  the  training  afforded  to 
those  who  are  to  be  certified  teachers  in  our  rural  schools, 
you  will  find  that  the  problems  of  country  life  are  scarcely 
treated  and  that  a  certified  teacher  for  these  schools  may 
well  come  to  his  or  her  class  without  realizing  that  the 
cultural  value  of  the  laws  of  organic  and  animal  growth 
is  as  great  as  training  in  the  laws  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  and  that  the  mental  discipline  following  a  study 
of  the  problems  of  farm  chemistry  may  be  as  great  as 
that  attendant  upon  geometry.  As  a  result,  the  rural 
school  course,  as  I  have  seen  it  in  operation,  is  little  other 
than  a  glorified  edition  of  the  three  R's.  You  might  call 


Inauguration  Proceedings  47 

it  the  three  R's  extra  illustrated.  While  I  do  not  dis- 
parage that  venerable  trinity,  I  think  that  overworship  at 
their  shrine  leads  to  the  shop,  the  counter,  the  office  and 
the  clerkship  instead  of  to  the  plow,  the  hammer,  the  tool 
and  the  producer. 

We  do  not  urge  that  our  schools,  either  common  or 
high,  should  turn  out  specialists  in  agriculture  or  me- 
chanics. We  ask  an  education  to  fit  us  for  our  share  in 
the  time  spirit  and  the  time  duty.  We  realize  that  edu- 
cation is  barren  which  does  not  produce  intelligence,  for 
intelligence  and  character  are  the  true  foundations  of  the 
democratic  state. 

Never  in  history  has  democracy  turned  in  directions 
so  sure  to  strain  the  general  intelligence  as  in  recent  years. 

If  I  correctly  view  the  tendency  of  the  times,  it  is 
to  substitute  associated  effort  for  individual  leadership. 
Thus  the  development  of  labor  is  in  the  direction  of  syn- 
dicalism or  ownership  and  management  by  labor  of  the 
industries  in  which  the  laborers  are  engaged,  analogous 
in  some  respects  to  the  ancient  guilds.  In  politics  the 
people  are  turning  away  from  individual  leadership  and 
representation  and  are  placing  their  confidence  in  direct 
action  by  the  people,  as  in  the  direct  primaries,  the  initia- 
tive and  the  referendum.  In  agriculture  the  tendency  of 
the  times  is  toward  cooperative  buying  and  cooperative 
selling.  In  all  these  ways  the  people  show  their  de- 
termination to  manage  their  own  affairs  by  association. 
I  believe  in  these  movements,  I  believe  in  their  perma- 
nence, in  their  value  to  the  people  of  the  State,  in  their 
propriety  as  substitutes  for  the  egotistic  individualism 
which  has  brought  about  the  unequal  distribution  of 
wealth  and  power  of  the  day,  in  their  safety  as  a  bulwark 
against  the  encroaching  folly  of  the  socialist  state,  but  I 


48  The  University  of  the  State  of  Ne»  York 

believe  that  with  these  changes  must  go  a  corresponding 
preparation  and  that  a  large  share  of  the  responsibility 
of  that  preparation  must  rest  upon  the  Department  of 
Education.  In  what  form,  by  what  method  and  with 
what  spirit  the  Department  shall  meet  these  great  prob- 
lems is  beyond  my  present  scope  of  knowledge  or  sug- 
gestion, and  I  count  the  State  fortunate  that  in  this  chang- 
ing time  it  has  called  to  the  leadership  of  its  Department 
of  Education  a  man  whose  record  and  whose  character 
show  a  spirit  equal  to  the  emergencies  of  the  time,  a 
freshness  of  observation,  a  sympathy  of  nature,  a  clear 
and  firm  purpose  which  lead  us  to  believe  confidently  in 
his  future  and  in  our  future  under  his  guidance.  For  we 
do  not  look  to  the  Department  to  sit  by  until  the  con- 
sciousness of  educational  needs  and  the  development  of 
the  life  of  the  people  shall  force  our  educational  leaders 
into  action.  We  look  to  our  educational  authorities  for 
inspiration  and  for  leadership. 

We  have  set  you,  Doctor  Finley,  on  a  high  place ;  show 
us  your  vision;  point  out  our  paths,  mark  our  perils  and 
remember  for  us  as  was  said  of  old  that  "  where  no  wise 
guidance  is,  the  people  falleth." 


INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  BY  JOHN  HUSTON 

FINLEY 

President  of  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 
and  Commissioner  of  Education 

Mr  Governor,  Mr  Chancellor,  Members  of  the  Board  of 
Regents,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

This  is  not  a  celebration  of  an  accession  to  office.  It 
is  of  an  investiture  with  one  of  the  most  sacred  of  re- 
sponsibilities this  State  can  put  upon  a  man  —  the  care, 
under  its  laws,  of  its  most  precious  possession.  Accept- 
ing this  investiture,  I  but  widen  the  horizon  of  the  pledge 
that  I  gave  ten  years  ago  to  the  city  of  New  York  and 
its  college  —  a  pledge  that  I  can  keep  without  disloyalty 
to  that  city  and  that  college  which  have  been  all  my 
world  and  now  continue  a  part  of  it  —  and  I  speak  my 
deepened,  strengthened  faith  in  the  succeeding,  despite 
all  the  obvious  failures,  of  the  sublime  endeavor  of  a 
democratic  people  to  rise  to  nobler,  happier  life  through 
the  education  of  its  children.  I  carried  into  my  office  a 
few  days  ago  the  image  of  a  youth  who  typifies  to  me  that 
great  host  through  whom  this  State  has  this  hope.  What 
I  would  have  for  him  I  would  have  for  his  generation. 
He  is  the  witness  of  my  pledge,  the  hostage  of  my  faith. 

What  I  shall  say  will  give  no  intimation  of  policy  or 
of  detail  of  purpose.  I  shall  endeavor  merely  and 
briefly  to  make  visible  to  you,  as  I  see  it,  this  structure 
whose  foundation  was  laid  in  the  ashes  of  the  Revolution, 
by  Clinton,  Hamilton,  Duane  and  L'Hommedieu,  and 
whose  columns  have  risen  through  the  labors  and  plans 
of  many,  directed  by  that  master  builder,  Dr  Andrew  S. 


50  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

Draper  —  this  structure  which  was  for  a  century  or  more 
two  structures,  built  upon  the  one  foundation,  University 
and  Department,  but  which  has  again  become  one  in  the 
nobler  architecture  of  a  unified  design.  Some  of  you  will 
think  of  it  as  a  department,"  some  as  a  "  university  " 
—  this  "  one  great  system  of  administration  and  super- 
vision," as  President  Butler  has  just  called  it;  it  matters 
little  what  name  you  put  uppermost,  if  only  you  see  its 
mighty  significance,  its  durable  purpose.  And  I  care 
not  whether  you  think  of  me  as  "Commissioner"  or 
"  President,"  or  without  title,  for  I  have  no  ambition  save 
to  serve  the  State  as  best  I  can  in  this  office,  if  only  with 
you  of  the  universities  and  colleges,  you  of  the  secondary 
and  elementary  schools,  and  you  of  the  citizenry  of  this 
Commonwealth,  I  can  make  potent  the  State's  desire. 

The  Five  Nations  who  once  occupied  the  valleys  con- 
verging within  sight  of  these  hills,  called  themselves,  ac- 
cording to  Chateaubriand,  the  "  Men  of  Always."  But, 
as  he  adds,  they  have  passed  on,  to  expire  on  the  same 
shore  on  which  they  landed  in  unknown  ages,  and  have 
left  in  these  valleys  only  the  "  mould  of  their  graves," 
the  implements  and  bones  of  their  ephemeral  existence. 
Among  their  sepulchers  has  come  another  race  of  men, 
who  though  conscious  of  their  bodily  mortality  yet  cher- 
ish a  faith  in  the  immortality  of  that  which  they  call 
"  the  state,"  that  "  invisible  multitude  of  the  spirits  of 
yesterday  and  tomorrow,"  as  the  Iron  Chancellor  once 
defined  a  "  true  people  " —  the  invisible  multitude  of  the 
spirits  of  yesterday  and  tomorrow  associated  in  the 
memories  and  purposes  of  today. 

And  the  most  confident  expression  of  that  faith  of  the 
race,  which  has  followed  the  aboriginal  race,  is  the  school, 
the  school  maintained  out  of  the  common  treasure  of  these 


Inauguration  Proceedings  51 

new  "  men  of  always,"  the  school  in  which  they  attempt 
to  remember,  to  keep  in  their  minds  and  hearts,  the  best 
of  yesterday,  the  school  in  whose  tuitions  they  pray,  with 
sacrifice  many  of  them,  over  half  of  the  days  in  every 
year,  for  the  unending  tomorrow,  not  of  their  individual 
selves,  dearly  as  they  may  desire  personal  immortality, 
but  of  their  collective  selves,  the  state. 

So  I  have  come  in  the  few  days  of  my  service  here, 
in  this  Department,  this  institution,  whose  invisible  walls 
follow  the  boundaries  of  this  Commonwealth,  this  great 
school  existent  in  the  State's  thousands  of  schools  of 
memory  and  of  discipline  —  I  have  come  to  think  of  it 
as  the  remembering  and  aspiring  soul  of  the  State,  as 
the  University  of  the  Men  of  Always,  for  without  that 
which  it  signifies  there  is  no  durable  state. 

This  may  seem  to  some  an  idealistic  definition,  a 
fantastic  characterization.  And,  I  must  confess  that  I 
should  myself  have  so  regarded  such  a  definition  only  a 
few  months  ago;  not  that  the  institution  has  undergone 
a  metamorphosis,  but  that  I  have  come  to  see  what  its 
inner  significance  is. 

I  saw  it,  as  no  doubt  thousands  saw  it  and  still  see  it 
as  a  standardizing,  policing,  regulating,  sometimes  re- 
pressive, and  always  appraising,  agency  of  the  State,  lead- 
ing the  child  from  the  home  or  the  street  into  the  school ; 
reproving,  punishing,  even  imprisoning,  negligent  or  avari- 
cious parents  or  guardians;  adjudicating  disputes  between 
school  trustees  and  school  teachers;  questioning  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  pupils  in  the  schools  every  year  and  mark- 
ing with  meticulous  and  critical  hand  their  millions  of 
answers;  apportioning  State  moneys,  amassing  valuable 
books,  collecting  precious  fragments  of  earth,  and  mak- 
ing helpful  reports ;  and,  finally,  admitting  to  professional 


52  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

study,  or  to  the  practice  of  certain  professions  or  the  pur- 
suit of  certain  occupations. 

These  are  some  of  the  prosaic  activities  which  doubt- 
less led  that  distinguished  man  of  letters,  George  Wil- 
liam Curtis,  Chancellor  of  this  University  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago,  to  say  of  it  that  it  was  "  invested  with  no 
more  romance  than  the  Department  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion," which  was  then  a  dissociate,  coordinate  adminis- 
trative agency. 

But  the  University  which  his  two  surviving  associates 
in  the  Board  of  Regents,  Chancellor  McKelway  and 
Vice  Chancellor  Sexton,  have  lived  to  see,  and  which 
they,  with  other  men  of  like  public  spirit  from  all  parts 
of  the  State,  have  notably  aided  to  develop,  has  an 
incomparable  romance  among  world  universities.  For 
in  the  unification  of  its  former  functions  with  those  of 
the  Department  of  Public  Instruction,  both  of  which 
apart  seemed  so  prosaic,  it  is  now  in  the  very  universality 
of  its  concern  a  university  in  a  new  sense,  for  it  embraces 
in  its  thought  the  whole  range  of  education,  from  the 
training  of  the  nurse  who  receives  the  new-born  child,  to 
the  researches  of  the  scientist  who  lives  out  upon  the 
utmost  verges  of  the  known.  Lord  Haldane,  whose  re- 
cent visit  to  America  has  given  us  such  gratification,  said 
to  the  people  of  England  something  which  intimates  that 
he  has  felt  the  impressiveness  of  the  infinities  of  the  sys- 
tems of  education  represented  by  this  University  through 
its  Regents  and  Commissioner :  "  It  is  only  by  showing 
that  your  elementary  teaching  is  linked  to  something  be- 
yond, and  that  that  something  beyond  is  linked  to  some- 
thing yet  beyond,  that  you  will  ever  be  able  to  awaken 
among  our  people  that  spirit  of  progress  which  distin- 
guishes the  United  States  at  the  present  moment."  '  The 


Inauguration  Proceedings  53 

universities  must  be  not  merely  detachable  superstructures, 
but  the  ...  intelligence  which  penetrates  the  whole 
system."  An  institution  which  gives  that  sense  of  con- 
tinuity which,  through  public  school  and  private  univers- 
ity and  research  institute,  is  helping  man  to  live,  as  the 
great  German  philosopher  Eucken  would  have  him  live, 
not  simply  in  the  world,  but  in  the  vast  eternity  of  the 
universe,  takes  its  place  among  the  highest  conceptions 
of  a  republic. 

For  myself,  seeing  for  the  first  time  the  reality  of  this 
University  instead  of  its  externality,  I  had  such  an  experi- 
ence as  the  philosopher  William  James  had  when,  travel- 
ing alone  in  the  mountains  of  North  Carolina,  he  suddenly 
became  aware  from  a  remark  made  by  his  mountaineer 
driver,  that  the  clearings  which  the  settlers  had  made  for 
their  homesteads,  and  which  had  seemed  to  him,  the 
philosopher,  but  a  moment  before,  denuded  spots  in  the 
midst  of  the  forests,  filled  with  charred  stumps  and  girdled 
leafless  trees,  were  to  those  who  made  these  clearings 
symbols  *'  redolent  of  moral  memories,"  and  "  sang  peans 
of  duty,  struggle  and  success."  The  little  schoolhouse 
plots,  which  are  now  this  University's  first  concern,  are 
democracy's  reservations  or  "  clearings  "  in  the  midst  of 
her  vast  private  domain.  And  some  of  them  seem,  es- 
pecially when  unoccupied,  as  ugly  and  dreary  of  external 
aspect  as  the  clearings  which  the  great  philosopher  found 
in  the  North  Carolina  mountains.  But  when  they  are 
viewed  in  their  inner,  eternal  significance,  when  they  are 
seen  as  the  expression  of  a  common  longing  for  the  happier 
existence  of  those  who  come  after,  of  an  aspiration  for  a 
more  perfect  state,  they  become  sacred  inclosures;  they 
are  ever  rehearsing  the  race's  "  moral  memories,"  they 
are  singing  peans  of  the  race's  progress. 


54  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

Walking,  myself,  several  years  ago  among  the  moun- 
tains of  Porto  Rico,  I  met  a  man  bearing  on  his  shoulder 
up  a  long  hill  what  seemed  to  me  at  first  only  a  basket 
or  box  filled  with  red  flowers,  but  what  I  soon  saw  to  hold 
also  the  dead  body  of  his  child,  which  in  lonesome  jour- 
ney he  was  carrying  to  burial  in  consecrated  ground  two 
miles  away.  There  is  no  more  beautiful  or  appealing 
picture,  among  all  my  memories,  of  the  faith  that  looks 
to  individual  immortality  beyond.  But  within  the  last 
month  I  have  found  another  to  put  beside  it.  It  has 
come  to  me,  reflecting  upon  the  first  or  second  order 
which  I  issued  as  Commissioner.  The  picture  is  of  the 
State  carrying  a  child  in  its  arms  through  the  snows  of  a 
northern  hill  to  one  of  its  plots  consecrated  to  the  per- 
petuation of  its  ideals,  here  among  the  living,  to  the  en- 
nobling and  perfecting  of  the  race  upon  earth. 

These  thousands  of  tracts  in  their  uses  —  the  State's 
white  acres,  I  have  often  visualized  them  —  fronting 
highway  and  street,  the  threads  of  common  land,  which 
hold  us  together,  it  is  the  duty  of  this  University,  through 
its  executive  officers,  to  supervise.  It  is  not  to  lessen  but 
to  strengthen  the  sense  of  local  responsibility  and  local 
initiative  in  the  governance  and  cultivation  of  these  "  white 
acres  "  that  this  general  oversight  is  provided  by  the 
State.  It  is  to  give  each  the  help  of  all;  and  yet  not  to 
make  a  uniform  standardized  "  all  "  but  to  encourage 
and  assist  each  to  develop  in  its  own  best  way. 

I  have  found  no  better  or  more  graphic  visualization  of 
the  relationship  of  the  State,  in  its  University,  to  the 
inhabitants  of  these  tracts  than  the  ancient  theory  of 
Democritus  and  Lucretius  as  to  the  communication  of 
sound  and  light  and  thought. 


Inauguration  Proceedings  55 

They  assumed  that  every  object,  every  thought,  was 
constantly  giving  off  images  or  idols  or  films  of  itself,  with 
the  result  that  the  atmosphere  came  to  be  constantly  filled 
with  millions  of  these  images ;  images,  first,  of  the  physical 
objects  that  were  traversed  by  the  subtler  images  of 
men's  thoughts,  and  these  in  turn  by  the  subtlest  of  all 
images,  the  majestic  thoughts  of  the  gods.  And  I  think 
of  this  agency  of  the  State,  with  its  central  library,  its 
central  museum,  its  central  collection  of  photographs  of 
the  world's  art,  its  tens  of  thousands  of  transcripts  of  what 
we  would  keep  in  the  memory  of  the  race  —  I  think  of 
it,  so  furnished,  as  the  source  of  the  majestic  desires  of 
this  State  for  the  good  of  every  child  in  it,  traversing  the 
atmosphere  from  the  sea  to  Niagara,  and  making  them- 
selves visible  wherever  the  image  of  a  child's  thought  or 
a  youth's  ambition,  faces  the  mystery  of  life  in  one  of 
these  little  plots. 

How  literally  this  is  true  is  apparent  in  the  fact  that 
the  State  not  only  cares  for  the  nurture  of  the  child's 
mind  through  the  teaching,  and  sends  its  thoughts  through 
commissioner,  superintendent  and  inspector,  but  is  actually 
giving  to  the  children  in  each  of  these  plots,  the  physical 
images,  books,  photographs,  lantern  slides,  which  are 
available  to  all  the  students  in  the  University.  So,  Lord 
Haldane's  desire  for  an  all-penetrating  and  all-pervading 
university  that  will  appeal  to  the  interest  of  a  people  has 
support  in  this  ancient  theory  of  physics  and  metaphysics, 
and  in  this  modern  realization  and  visualization  in  fact. 
For  are  the  best  thoughts  and  highest  desires  of  men  not 
the  majestic  images  of  the  gods? 

Nor  is  the  State  visiting  in  its  thought  the  child  alone, 
or  the  child  in  its  work  alone.  Last  year  the  Legisla- 
ture made  it  possible  for  the  districts  to  put  these  little 


56  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

tracts  to  fuller  community  uses,  in  giving  authority  for 
the  designation  of  these  as  sites  not  only  for  schoolhouses, 
but  for  playgrounds,  or  for  '*  agricultural,  athletic  center 
and  social  center  purposes,"  and  for  "  other  uses  per- 
taining to  the  welfare  of  the  community."  They  are  to 
grow  first  that  discipline  and  control  and  respect  for 
others,  which  are,  above  all  else,  needed  in  our  republic, 
but  they  may  develop  side  by  side  with  these  a  higher 
community  happiness,  and  a  greater  community  pride,  a 
more  helpful  neighborliness  whose  human  values,  what 
with  urban  indifference  and  rural  loneliness,  we  are 
missing  in  so  many  parts  of  the  State. 

And  there  is  still  another  phase  of  State  concern  which 
is  now  to  have  expression.  Last  year  provision  was  made 
by  law  for  the  medical  inspection  of  all  the  children  at- 
tending the  schools  of  the  State.  What  this  means  has 
been  represented,  though  unwittingly,  by  Mr  Low  in 
one  of  his  mural  paintings  which  have  just  been  installed 
in  the  rotunda  of  this  building  (and  are  to  be  seen  for 
the  first  time  in  place  today).  It  shows  the  ancient 
Greek  physician,  Aesculapius,  the  god  of  medicine,  sit- 
ting opposite  a  child,  one  hand  holding  an  hourglass,  the 
other  feeling  the  pulse  of  the  child.  What  is  here  por- 
trayed in  classic  illustration  is  what  is  practically  planned 
by  this  great  State  for  the  conservation  of  the  health  of  all 
its  children.  The  figure  of  Aesculapius  is  but  the  per- 
sonification of  that  conserving  concern  of  this  Common- 
wealth, its  hand  upon  the  pulse  of  every  school  child 
within  its  borders.  And  when  it  is  known,  furthermore, 
that  not  a  new  school  building,  outside  of  the  larger 
cities,  can  be  built  until  the  plans  —  showing  provi- 
sion for  light,  air  and  ventilation,  and  against  fire  — 
have  been  approved  by  an  officer  of  this  University  (and 


Inauguration  Proceedings  57 

I  hope  that  his  approval  of  the  architecture  may  also  be 
some  day  required),  it  will  be  appreciated  what  a  con- 
structive as  well  as  conserving  policy  the  State  has  made 
possible  for  its  University. 

But  it  is  not  alone  these  thousands  of  school  plots  with 
their  ever  changing  millions,  plots  whose  reservation  for 
the  common  schools  this  University  was  the  foremost  to 
promote ;  it  is  not  these  alone  that  the  University  has  now 
in  continuous  care.  Exactly  one  hundred  and  thirty 
years  ago  this  very  beginning  of  January,  Governor 
George  Clinton,  in  a  message  to  the  Legislature  sitting 
in  the  capital  city,  in  whose  "  half-charred  and  neglected 
streets  the  trees  had  been  cut  down  and  the  ruined  build- 
ings had  been  left  unrestored,"  said:  "Perhaps  there  is 
scarce  anything  more  worthy  of  your  attention  than  the 
revival  and  encouragement  of  seminaries  of  learning." 
In  that  unpromising,  squalid  "clearing,"  to  take  philos- 
opher James's  figure  again  for  the  moment,  (which  is 
now  the  resplendent  New  York  City)  this  University 
had  its  origin.  It  might  have  been  —  she  might  have 
been  —  an  Alma  Mater  with  children  of  her  own  within 
ivied  walls,  exuberant  undergraduates  shouting  her  name 
endearingly.  But  she  was  destined  by  an  early  dissen- 
sion that  has  given  us  the  great  Columbia  University,  with 
President  Low  and  President  Butler  (who  in  themselves 
and  their  service  to  the  world  would  have  justified  any 
dissension)  to  become  a  mother  not  of  students  but  of 
corporations;  seminaries  of  learning,  universities,  colleges, 
academies,  libraries,  museums,  scientific  associations;  her- 
self immortal,  giving  birth  to  immortal  creatures  only. 

She  has  no  mortal  collegiate  children  of  her  own,  as 
have  the  state  universities  of  the  West  and  South;  and 
while  she  has  maternal  prerogative,  sometimes  disputed, 


58  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

she  never  exercises  it  save  in  rare  cases  of  delinquency  on 
the  part  of  her  immortal  children;  but  upon  the  insistent 
advice  of  Doctor  Draper,  which  the  State  a  few  days 
before  his  death  permitted  her  to  follow,  she  is  to  select 
within  the  next  four  years  three  thousand  of  the  most 
promising  graduates  of  the  academies  and  high  schools  of 
the  State  and  help  them  out  of  her  own  purse  (which  is 
the  State's  treasury)  to  take  advantage  of  the  training 
which  the  universities  and  colleges  of  her  nurture  are  able 
to  give.  For  an  ultimate  annual  expenditure  of  $300,000 
the  State,  through  private  and  municipal  cooperation,  will 
be  educating  a  body  of  undergraduates  larger  than  that 
of  many  another  state  university  spending  from  three  to 
five  times  as  much. 

This  building  is  called  Doctor  Draper's  monument. 
I  am  not  sure  that  the  organizing  of  this  great  body  of 
university  scholars  is  not  to  be  his  greatest  monument. 
And  I  congratulate  the  State  and  its  University  that  the 
Governor  and  Legislature  have  made  possible  the  full 
initiation  of  this  plan,  so  that  today  the  University  has 
already  750  scholars  as  freshmen  in  the  various  univers- 
ities and  colleges  of  the  State. 

President  Wilson  spoke  of  having  had  in  thought,  in 
his  professional  days,  the  "  perfect  place  of  learning,"  a 
place  frequented  by  sagacious  men,  debaters  of  the 
world's  questions,  and  used  to  the  rough  ways  of  democ 
racy,  a  place  where  calm  science  sat  ascetic,  recluse 
"  like  a  nun,"  "  not  knowing  if  the  world  passed  and  not 
caring  if  only  the  truth  came  in  answer  to  her  prayer," 
"  a  place  where  literature  walked  in  quiet  chambers,  or 
with  storied  walls  about."  What  he  saw  in  his  apoca- 
lyptic vision  was  probably  a  perfected  Princeton  or  a 
glorified  University  of  Virginia,  a  place  of  youth,  and 


Inauguration  Proceedings  59 

dormitories  with  "  magic  casements."  But  I  like  to  think 
that  this  unified  institution,  with  all  its  extensive  cares,  its 
majestic  and  its  unwearying  traversing  of  the  State,  is  to 
find  here  at  last  in  this  beautiful  and  befitting  house  some 
of  the  satisfactions  of  the  "  perfect  place  of  learning." 
Here,  already,  calm  science  sits,  ascetic  as  a  nun,  undis- 
turbed by  the  "  rough  ways  of  democracy,"  yet  concerned 
for  it,  as  I  discovered  a  few  days  ago  in  the  midst  of  her 
researches;  here  literature  walks  in  quiet  chambers  and  in 
the  Library  School  interprets  her  storied  walls  of  every 
language  and  knowledge;  here  sagacious  men  who  are  to 
lead  democracy  will  come  increasingly  for  guidance  in  the 
debates,  that  are  to  make  this  hill  ever  a  place  of  com- 
manding influence;  and  here  in  time  is  to  be  the  gate  of 
admission  to  every  profession  or  occupation  which  the 
State  is  to  guard. 

So,  out  of  this  medley  of  powers  and  responsibilities, 
which  seemed  to  me  at  first  but  a  code  of  educational 
police  regulations,  a  collection  of  administrative  machin- 
ery, I  have  seen  rise  a  university,  as  Professor  Perry  of 
Columbia  has  defined  it,  a  university  which  **  is  a  little 
state,"  a  polis  that  has  at  heart  the  good  of  every  citizen 
in  the  making,  that  has  within  its  horizon  the  whole  range 
of  educational  problems,  from  those  which  the  newest  im- 
migrant brings  in  his  alien  speech  and  tradition  up  the 
harbor  of  New  York,  to  those  which  remain  in  the  mute 
hearts  of  the  descendants  of  the  aborigines  out  upon  the 
other  border,  a  University  indeed  of  the  Men  of  Always. 

I  have,  as  I  have  said,  no  other  —  and  there  can  be  no 
higher  —  ambition  than  to  serve  the  greater  State  as  Com- 
missioner or  as  President  of  this  little  state  which  exists, 
as  Emerson  once  said  the  state  itself  existed,  namely,  "  to 
educate  the  wise  man,*'  with  whose  appearance  both  may 


60  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

disappear.  And  I  renew  to  you,  Regents  of  this  little 
state,  and  to  you,  Mr  Governor,  of  the  greater  State,  the 
oath  of  office  which  I  took  a  month  ago  in  the  presence  of 
the  beloved  Vice  Chancellor,  who,  to  my  supreme  regret, 
is  prevented  by  illness  from  being  here  today  —  the  oath 
to  serve  with  all  my  strength  and  heart  and  mind  both  the 
little  state  and,  through  it,  the  greater  State. 


REMARKS  BY  DISTINGUISHED  VISITORS 

CHANCELLOR  MCKELWAY:  We  will  now  have  the 
pleasure  of  hearing  from  visiting  friends,  representatives 
of  our  Commonwealth  and  of  our  cities,  and  I  shall  begin 
by  invoking  your  attention,  as  I  am  sure  you  will  be  glad 
to  give  it,  to  Senator  Elihu  Root. 

ELIHU  ROOT  :  Mr  Chancellor  and  gentlemen,  had  I 
known  that  I  was  to  be  called  upon,  respect  for  my  old 
and  valued  friend,  Doctor  Finley,  and  for  this  great  in- 
stitution of  our  State,  would  have  required  me  to  make 
due  preparation.  But  I  have  not.  I  am  reminded  by 
what  Doctor  Finley  said  that  130  years  ago  also  there 
was  enacted  a  statute  of  the  State  of  New  York  which 
is  the  basis  of  our  educational  system  and  that  it  was  en- 
acted upon  the  report  of  a  committee  of  which  Alexander 
Hamilton  was  chairman,  and  that  the  report  was  drafted 
by  him.  My  dear  Doctor  Finley,  may  I  express  the  hope 
that  upon  you  falls  the  mantle  of  Hamilton's  genius  for 
the  public  service.  As  men  now  observe  the  meaningless 
alphabet  of  single  events  which  are  happening  from  day 
to  day  and  as  under  long  continued  and  effective  obser- 
vation these  group  themselves  into  words  and  the  words 
into  sentences  and  the  sentences  into  chapters,  we  begin 
to  see  dimly  that  a  great  renaissance  makes  its  appear- 
ance in  the  world.  We  are  passing  out  of  a  long  period 
of  quiescence  into  a  period  of  new  things,  new  departures, 
new  achievements,  new  spirit  leading,  we  know  not  where. 
May  the  spirit  of  that  unknown  future  rest  upon  you  and 
sanctify  your  work  to  the  accomplishment  of  its  great 
purpose.  The  good  old  three  R's  that  have  been  spoken 


62  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

of  with  slight  respect  today  are  the  keys  that  open  the 
doors  of  all  opportunity  for  mankind.  You  are  to  see 
that  the  keys  are  furnished  to  every  child  and  then  point 
out  the  doors,  lead  the  children  to  the  doors  of  opportun- 
ity and  teach  them  to  use  the  keys  that  fit.  As  they  go 
on  up  the  ascending  scale  of  elementary  and  secondary 
school  and  college  and  university  it  is  your  work  to  lead 
them  to  doorways  more  and  more  difficult  to  pass,  so  that 
everybody  may  find  boundless  opportunity  for  usefulness 
and  public  service,  may  fulfil  in  the  highest  degree  all  the 
capacities  and  aptitudes  of  their  natures  and  may  attain 
for  the  greatest  measure  of  happiness  that  it  is  possible 
for  them.  God  bless  you,  my  dear  doctor,  in  your  work. 
Our  good  wishes,  our  hopes  and  our  earnest  help  will 
always  be  with  you. 

CHANCELLOR  McKELWAY:  It  was  Rudyard  Kip- 
ling, I  think,  who  said,  "  The  best  part  of  this  world  is 
something  just  beyond  it."  Certainly  the  best  part  of 
New  York  is  that  something  just  beyond  it,  called  Long 
Island.  The  best  form  for  public  education  service  is,  of 
course,  found  in  the  Board  of  Regents.  Alexander 
Hamilton  has  been  credited  with  the  origination  of  that 
Board.  It  was,  however,  enacted  by  the  Legislature  in 
1  784.  Hamilton  was  not  then  even  a  member  of  the 
Legislature.  The  bill  which  became  a  law  was  intro- 
duced by  Ezra  L'Homedieu.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  State  Senate  from  Suffolk  county.  Thus  from  Long 
Island,  from  which  he  and  I  came,  some  years  apart, 
issued  the  act  creating  the  Board  of  Regents,  and  from 
the  same  Legislature  in  subsequent  years  came  the  law 
creating  Greater  New  York.  The  ablest  mayor  old 
Brooklyn  ever  had  and  the  best  mayor  Greater  New 


Inauguration  Proceedings  63 

York  has  yet  had,  I  now  take  pleasure  in  presenting  to 
you.  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  allow  me  to  introduce  to  you 
Seth  Low. 

SETH  Low:  Mr  Chancellor,  ladies  and  gentlemen: 
I  hope  I  may  be  permitted  a  personal  reference  at  this 
moment,  because  twenty-four  years  ago  this  March  I 
received  the  honorary  degree  of  doctor  of  laws  from  the 
Chancellor  of  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
then  George  William  Curtis;  so  that  both  by  my  birth 
in  Brooklyn  and  by  adoption,  Mr  Chancellor,  I  feel  as 
if  I  were  at  home  in  this  presence. 

An  honorary  degree  is  not  so  much  the  recognition  of 
achievement  as  it  is  like  the  touch  of  the  sword  of  the  sov- 
ereign which  makes  the  common  man  rise  from  his  knee  a 
knight,  subject  to  all  the  obligations  of  *'  noblesse  oblige." 
The  honorary  degree  from  an  institution  of  learning  lays 
upon  the  man  who  is  fortunate  enough  to  receive  it  that 
same  obligation  of  "  noblesse  oblige."  The  peculiar  qual- 
ity, Doctor  Finley,  that  emanates  from  The  University 
of  the  State  of  New  York  seems  to  me  to  be  this.  The 
old  Latin  poet,  you  know,  made  one  of  his  characters 
say  that  nothing  human  was  foreign  to  him ;  and  the  hon- 
orary degree  of  The  University  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  and  much  more  the  presidency  of  the  University, 
seem  to  me  to  embrace  a  comprehensive  call  to  service 
that  has  its  limit  with  childhood  at  one  end  only,  and  with 
old  age  at  the  other.  As  a  resident  of  the  city  of  New 
York,  I  can  almost  envy  the  State  for  the  greater  right 
that  it  has  attained  to  call  Doctor  Finley  its  own;  for  we 
shall  miss  him  in  the  great  metropolis.  I  should  envy  the 
State,  but  for  the  fact  that  I  realize  that  the  city  is  a  part 
of  the  State,  and  so  have  the  assurance  that  we  shall  con- 


64  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

tinue  to  share  in  this  great  possession.  The  State  has  been 
fortunate  enough  to  catch  Doctor  Finley  while  he  is  — 
shall  I  say  neither  young  nor  old?  I  think  I  would  rather 
say  when  he  is  both  young  and  old;  for  many  years  ago 
it  was  said  that  **  the  young  men  should  see  visions  and 
the  old  men  should  dream  dreams;"  and  we  like  to  see 
at  the  head  of  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 
a  man  who  is  capable  both  of  seeing  visions  and  of  dream- 
ing dreams  of  their  accomplishment.  I  am  entirely  sure 
that  not  a  person  connected  with  the  educational  system 
of  New  York  State,  whether  it  be  a  child  in  the  kinder- 
garten, or  whether  it  be  the  head  of  a  great  university, 
or  the  administrator  of  a  system  of  public  schools  in 
some  of  our  cities,  or  a  lonely  teacher,  not  one  of  them 
will  come  in  contact  with  this  man  without  going  back 
to  his  place  stronger  for  having  met  him;  more  full  of 
enthusiasm  for  his  work,  whatever  it  may  be.  In  other 
words,  the  human  quality  of  Doctor  Finley  which  you 
must  have  noted  in  his  inaugural  address  is  one  of  the 
things  that  has  so  endeared  him  to  the  whole  population 
of  the  City  of  New  York. 

Your  Chancellor  has  referred  to  his  recent  services  as 
an  arbitrator  in  a  great  railroad  dispute.  I  do  not  know 
how  any  greater  expression  of  confidence  could  have  been 
given  him  than  that  he  should  have  made  so  great  an  im- 
pression upon  both  the  elements  involved  in  that  arbitra- 
tion, that,  without  any  connection  whatever  with  railroad- 
ing or  with  industrial  affairs,  they  should  have  asked  him 
to  be  one  of  those  to  settle  the  controversy  which  meant 
so  much  to  them  and  to  our  country.  Therefore,  I  con- 
gratulate the  State  that  it  has  as  the  head  of  its  educa- 
tional system  a  man  who  means  so  much  not  only  to  the 
humble  but  to  the  great.  I  congratulate  our  educational 


Inauguration  Proceedings  65 

system  that  its  head  is  a  man  who  has  made  so  profound 
an  impression,  by  his  sense  of  justice,  that  he  should  be 
summoned  to  that  duty  which  he  so  honorably  performed. 
I  also  think  it  is  significant  that  one  of  the  principal 
services  that  Doctor  Finley  has  rendered  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  outside  of  his  official  relation  to  the  College 
of  the  City  of  New  York,  has  been  rendered  by  him  as 
the  president  of  the  New  York  Association  for  the  Blind ; 
an  association  whose  motto  is  "  Light  through  work." 
How  typical  it  fortunately  is  that  the  head  of  the  educa- 
tional system  of  our  Empire  State  is  a  man,  at  whose 
heart  is  the  burning  desire  to  give  light  to  the  blind!  I 
venture  the  prediction  that  there  is  no  teacher  in  all  our 
public  school  system  so  blind,  that  when  he  or  she  has 
come  in  contact  with  Doctor  Finley  they  will  not  see,  in 
the  child  and  in  the  school,  something  finer  and  nobler 
and  more  comprehensive  than  they  ever  dreamed  of  be- 
fore. I  also  like  to  think  that  the  great  public,  sometimes 
so  blind  to  the  truer  meaning  of  things,  will  be  enabled 
by  this  man  to  see  in  this  enormous  organization,  this 
wonderful  organization  which  controls  the  educational  sys- 
tem of  the  State,  not  simply  a  mechanism  for  doing  cer- 
tain pieces  of  work  that  can  not  be  done  without  organiza- 
tion, but  a  living  thing  that  takes  the  child  of  the  State 
and  makes  out  of  him  a  citizen  capable  of  doing  service 
for  the  State. 

CHANCELLOR  McKELWAY:  Ladies  and  gentlemen, 
it  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  introduce  to  you  one  of  the 
best  productions  of  the  educational  system  of  our  metro- 
politan city  and  our  State,  and  one  of  the  most  exalted 
and  trusted  representatives  of  party  purpose  and  educa- 
tional progress  in  the  person  of  Mr  McAneny,  whom  I 
will  now  introduce. 


66  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

GEORGE  McANENY:  Mr  Chancellor  and  Commis- 
sioner, ladies  and  gentlemen:  Mr  Low  has  spoken  for 
the  people  of  the  city  of  New  York  well  and  strongly 
and  I  can  but  echo  what  he  has  said  and  then  perhaps  add 
a  word  for  the  government  of  the  city  of  New  York, 
of  which  Doctor  Finley  was  in  a  sense  a  member,  and  in 
which,  therefore,  we  were  colleagues.  To  bring  the  greet- 
ing of  that  government  to  him  is  indeed  a  rare  pleasure 
and  a  real  privilege,  but  I  ought  to  tell  you,  if  I  am  to  be 
perfectly  frank,  that  while  we  gave  him  up  and  while 
upon  that  ground  I  am  entitled  as  the  representative  of 
that  government  to  more  of  your  sympathy  than  any  other 
man  who  has  spoken  here  today,  we  gave  him  up  with  re- 
luctance. The  wrench  cost  us  a  great  deal;  and  I  have 
no  doubt  that  it  cost  him  a  great  deal.  But  the  fact  that 
we  did  give  him  up  I  am  willing  to  submit  as  proof  that, 
even  as  a  city,  we  have  our  proper  sense  of  State  patriot- 
ism. It  was  the  right  thing  to  do  and  we  at  least  find 
satisfaction  in  the  knowledge  that  he  will  still  be  with  us 
and  near  us  in  the  work  that  is  to  be  his  here.  He  has 
been  a  part  of  the  life  of  our  city  in  so  many  ways  that  I 
could  not  begin  to  enumerate  them.  But  let  me  tell  you 
that  because  of  all  he  has  done  for  us  he  is  now  held  in 
deep  affection  by  us  all  and  that  we  regard  him  with  the 
highest  respect.  That  that  affection  and  respect  are  now 
to  be  shared  by  the  people  of  all  the  State  is  a  matter  to 
me,  of  a  great  deal  of  private  satisfaction. 

Doctor  Finley  left  with  us  the  product  of  his  ten  years' 
of  work  in  a  model  city  college,  a  wonderful  institution, 
if  I  may  so  class  it.  He  has  made  that  college  not  only 
the  crowning  thing  in  our  system  of  public  education,  but 
he  has  made  it  a  part  of  the  administrative  system  of  the 
city.  It  was  his  great  purpose  to  do  that  and  he  has 


Inauguration  Proceedings  67 

started  it  on  its  way  in  such  manner  that  his  dream  there 
is  sure  to  be  realized.  I  have  been  told  that  as  the  test 
of  the  really  perfect  City  College  man  three  of  his  boys 
were  compelled  to  walk  up  here  today.  The  Doctor  is  a 
great  walker  himself  and  thinks  nothing  of  getting  about 
the  water  front  of  our  island  two  or  three  times  before 
breakfast.  There  are  in  fact  legends  in  the  town  about 
his  walking  across  to  Princeton  before  breakfast,  when  the 
road  is  good.  He  will  find  opportunity  here  and  through- 
out the  State  to  keep  things  "  stepping  lively  "  and  to 
bring  that  wholesome  out-of-door  spirit  of  his  into  all 
that  he  does  for  the  public  educational  system  of  the  State. 
He  is  a  man  among  men,  as  we  well  found,  and  we  leave 
him  with  you  with  confidence  that  you  will  value  him  as 
we  have  valued  him.  I  trust  that  he  will  come  back  to  us 
often.  When  he  does  he  will  always  find  the  people 
down  there  still  loving  him  for  what  he  has  done,  believ- 
ing in  him  thoroughly  and  believing  that  in  securing  him 
as  the  head  of  its  educational  system  the  State  of  New 
York  is  a  fortunate  Commonwealth. 

BENEDICTION  BY  THE  RIGHT  REVEREND 

T.  M.  A.  BURKE 
Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Albany 

We  implore  Thee,  Almighty  God,  to  send  down  Thy 
choicest  blessings  and  benedictions  upon  all  who  have  as- 
sisted at  these  exercises,  and  especially  upon  him  to  whom 
has  been  committed  the  direction  of  all  the  educational 
institutions  of  the  State.  Upon  all  who  shall  drink  at 
the  fountain  of  knowledge  that  shall  flow  from  the  univers- 
ities in  every  part  of  the  State.  In  a  word,  we  pray  the 
blessing  of  the  Almighty  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost 
may  descend  upon  us  and  remain  with  us  for  ever,  Amen. 
3 


EVENING  SESSION 


ADDRESS  BY  MARTIN  H.  GLYNN 

Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York 

Tonight  we  honor  a  man  and  pay  tribute  to  an  idea. 
Our  public  schools  are  the  idea  and  Doctor  Finley  the 
man.  The  man  illustrates  the  idea  and  the  idea  typifies 
the  man. 

Upon  that  idea  the  thing  we  call  civilization  is  based. 
Upon  it  depend  all  enlightenment  and  all  progress. 
Where  that  idea  is  voiced  the  world  goes  forward,  where 
it  is  obscured  the  world  stands  still.  Were  it  not  for  that 
idea  the  centuries  would  be  but  idle  moments  moving  in 
a  little  circle;  because  of  it,  man  is  master  of  time,  climb- 
ing heavenward  with  the  years.  That  idea,  that  concept, 
is  education. 

Education  is  the  link  which  binds  the  hope  of  one  gen- 
eration to  the  achievement  of  the  next.  It  gives  to  the 
eager  youth  of  the  present  the  fruits  of  all  that  men  and 
women  have  done  since  the  morning  of  the  first  day.  It 
keeps  imperishable  the  contributions  of  every  age  to  the 
pleasure  and  profit  of  the  race.  It  makes  the  revolutions 
of  yesterday  the  conventions  of  today.  It  proclaims  con- 
sideration for  humanity,  but  preaches  love  for  man.  It 
provides  the  wine  of  poetry  and  the  nutriment  of  science. 
It  conquers  force  by  persuasion  and  slays  wrong  by  irony 
and  wit.  It  fetters  prejudice  with  logic  and  liberates 
reason  with  rhetoric.  It  is  the  eternal  ocean,  fed  by  rivers 
of  the  forgotten  past,  on  which  sail  the  argosies  of  the 
future. 


72  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

To  educate  —  to  draw  forth  all  the  splendid  possibil- 
ities of  a  human  being  —  is  the  noblest  task  that  any  in- 
dividual or  any  nation  can  attempt.  To  educate  —  to 
place  the  hard-worn  truths  of  vanished  years  before  the 
questioning  and  aspiring  mind  —  is  a  responsibility  that 
rests  upon  every  state  and  every  nation.  Barbarism  can 
not  compete  with  civilization,  ignorance  can  not  match 
strength  with  intelligence.  The  nations  which  have  acted 
upon  this  fact  have  flourished  and  gone  forward;  those 
which  have  neglected  it  have  been  compelled  to  yield  and 
to  recede. 

It  is  not  enough  that  a  select  and  distinguished  few 
should  be  admitted  to  the  benefits  of  education.  Just  as 
no  nation  can  be  contented  where  hundreds  gorge  while 
millions  starve,  so  no  nation  can  be  intelligent  where  the 
elect  are  educated  and  the  multitude  are  ignorant.  Edu- 
cation itself  cries  out  against  a  monopoly  of  education; 
the  more  we  know  the  more  we  realize  how  necessary  it  is 
for  others  to  know. 

Education,  which  reaches  from  the  highest  in  the  state 
to  the  lowest,  which  knows  no  distinctions  of  race  or  class, 
which  is  made  the  rightful  heritage  of  every  child  and  be- 
comes the  reliance  of  every  citizen,  is  the  greatest  influ- 
ence for  good  that  any  nation  can  possess.  Where  such 
education  flourishes  there  liberty  breathes;  where  it  grows 
and  spreads,  there  tolerance  and  humanity  will  be  found. 
No  man  whose  intelligence  has  been  quickened  into  life 
is  willingly  a  slave;  no  man  who  does  not  know  the  rea- 
sons for  his  enfranchisement  is  really  free.  Ignorance  and 
tyranny  go  hand  in  hand;  liberty  and  enlightenment  are 
brothers. 

We  of  the  republic  have  cause  to  congratulate  our- 
selves on  the  wisdom  and  foresight  of  those  who  estab- 


Inauguration  Proceedings  73 

lished  our  common  schools.  We  have  grown  great  and 
prosperous  because,  after  this  nation  put  its  hand  to  the 
proposition  that  all  men  are  politically  equal,  it  made 
the  proposition  something  more  than  an  assertion  by  pro- 
viding the  surest  means  of  preserving  that  equality.  One 
of  the  most  significant  facts  in  the  history  of  our  country 
is  that  the  man  who  wrote  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence was  one  of  the  men  who  blazed  the  way  for  the 
country's  system  of  common  schools.  And  when  Thomas 
Jefferson  proclaimed  to  the  world  that  America's  men  de- 
manded freedom  of  conscience  and  of  action,  he  per- 
formed no  greater  service  than  when  he  sought  for  Amer- 
ica's children  that  freedom  of  education  without  which 
all  other  freedom  is  insecure. 

New  York  led  the  rest  of  the  country  with  the  first 
public  school,  and  it  leads  today  as  it  did  two  hundred 
eighty  years  ago.  John  Millar,  deputy  commissioner  of 
education  for  Canada,  recently  declared  that  *'  no  part 
of  the  Republic  presents  a  more  valuable  study  to  the 
educationist  than  New  York;"  that  its  public  schools 
"  bid  fair  to  put  New  York  educationally  in  the  front 
place  of  the  United  States  as  it  is  already  commercially 
and  politically." 

In  1633  Holland  was  two  centuries  ahead  of  the  rest 
of  Europe  in  education,  and  the  New  Amsterdam  Dutch 
brought  to  this  country  the  educational  spirit  of  the  father- 
land. In  1 633  they  opened  America's  first  public  school 
and  made  Rollandsen  its  master. 

Between  that  first  crude  attempt  at  general  education 
and  New  York's  present  school  system  there  is  the  same 
difference  as  between  the  Half  Moon  of  Hendrick  Hud- 
son and  the  ocean  liner  of  today.  Rollandsen,  we  are 
told,  supplemented  his  slender  salary  by  running  a  laun- 


74  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

dry.  One  of  his  successors  was  removed  because  he  came 
out  second  best  in  a  suit  over  the  price  of  a  hog.  Another 
entered  the  educational  field  because  his  tavern  was  not 
sufficiently  patronized.  New  York's  first  educational  sys- 
tem had  thirty  masters  in  as  many  years.  Tonight  we 
venture  the  hope  that  thirty  years  will  not  see  a  single 
change  in  the  presiding  genius  of  the  present  system. 

The  first  act  of  Governor  Clinton  after  the  British  army 
of  occupation  had  cleared  from  Staten  Island,  was  to 
urge  the  Legislature  to  provide  a  suitable  system  of  edu- 
cation. Governor  Lewis,  who  took  up  the  work  where 
Clinton  left  off;  Joseph  Lancaster,  who  opened  a  free 
school  in  his  own  home;  Gideon  Hawley,  whose  labors 
earned  for  him  the  title  of  "  Father  of  New  York's  Public 
Schools "  —  these  are  educational  pioneers  whom  the 
State  has  reason  to  hold  in  affectionate  esteem. 

To  speak  of  the  schools  of  New  York  without  dwelling 
for  a  moment  upon  what  religious  and  charitable  organiza- 
tions have  done  for  the  cause  of  education  in  the  State 
would  be  unfair  and  shortsighted.  No  inconsiderable  part 
of  the  children  of  the  State  have  received  their  schooling 
at  the  hands  of  private  and  denominational  teachers.  Re- 
ligion has  performed  additional  service  to  the  State  by 
opening  the  doors  of  knowledge  to  all  who  came  within 
its  influence.  Charity  has  been  open-handed,  not  only  in 
answering  the  needs  of  the  body,  but  in  striving  to  provide 
the  necessities  of  the  mind.  The  schoolmaster  and  the 
clergyman  have  worked  hand  in  hand  for  the  betterment 
of  those  about  them.  And  in  many  cases  the  clergyman 
and  the  schoolmaster  have  been  one  and  the  same. 

Education,  as  we  know  it,  is  under  obligations  to  many 
men  and  many  influences,  but  there  is  no  single  factor  to 
which  education  owes  a  greater  debt  than  it  does  to  re- 


Inauguration  Proceedings  75 

ligion.  The  shrine  and  the  schoolhouse  have  never  been 
very  far  apart  at  any  stage  of  the  world's  progress.  Edu- 
cation is  the  natural  consequnce  of  a  desire  to  help  one's 
fellowman. 

For  those  more  fortunate  in  this  world's  goods,  who  do 
not  need  to  turn  to  the  State  for  education,  or  for  those 
who  received  their  training  in  denominational  or  chari- 
table schools,  the  public  school  may  not  mean  the  begin- 
ning and  the  end  of  education.  But  to  the  millions  who 
have  found  it  the  only  place  where  they  could  slake  their 
thirst  for  knowledge,  the  "  little  red  schoolhouse  "  is  a 
sacred  temple  that  no  man  dare  profane. 

Within  its  friendly  walls  a  message  of  hope  and  in- 
spiration has  been  brought  to  the  American  boy.  There 
he  has  learned  that  no  task  is  too  hard  for  him  to  attempt, 
no  height  too  lofty  for  him  to  scale.  There  he  has  found 
the  universal  key  that  unlocks  all  the  mysteries  of  science 
and  of  art,  the  magic  key  of  study.  There  he  has  dis- 
covered that  two  and  two  make  four,  and  that  neither 
chicanery  nor  dishonesty  can  alter  the  result ;  there  he  has 
learned  that  this  fine  old  world  is  round,  and  that  its  un- 
yielding corners  and  cruel  angles  are  only  superficial.  And 
beyond  all  the  reading,  all  the  writing,  all  the  arithmetic 
that  have  taxed  his  patience  through  snowy  winter  morn- 
ings and  sultry  summer  afternoons,  the  American  boy  has 
learned  something  else  in  the  public  school.  He  has 
learned  the  American's  first  lesson,  the  lesson  of  equality 
and  equal  opportunity. 

There  are  no  favorites  in  the  "  little  red  schoolhouse." 
The  son  of  the  banker  and  the  son  of  the  mechanic  meet 
there  upon  a  common  footing.  Each  school  is  a  miniature 
republic  where  industry  and  ability  are  the  only  roads  to 
favor  and  success.  As  every  one  of  Napoleon's  soldiers 


76  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

carried  in  his  knapsack  a  field  marshal's  baton,  so  each 
American  boy  carries  in  his  schoolbag  a  title  to  the  presi- 
dency of  the  United  States. 

Every  boy  who  has  fought  and  laughed  his  way  through 
the  "  little  red  schoolhouse  "  knows  that  all  class  dis- 
tinctions are  artificial  and  that  merit  is  the  measure  of  the 
man.  Whatever  else  they  do,  the  schools  of  America 
produce  real  Americans  fit  for  the  duties  and  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  American  citizenship. 

I  know  whereof  I  speak  when  I  talk  of  the  public 
schools.  It  was  in  one  of  this  State's  public  schools  that 
I  learned  to  read  and  write.  It  was  in  a  public  school 
that  I  caught  my  first  glimpse  of  the  broad  world  beyond 
the  circling  hills  and  mountains  about  my  native  town. 
It  was  in  a  public  school  that  I  discovered  the  glorious 
world  where  the  greatest  men  of  all  the  ages  live  and  talk 
—  the  world  of  books ;  and  I  would  be  ingrate  and  rec- 
reant if  I  let  this  occasion  slip  without  humbly  acknowl- 
edging some  part  of  the  debt  I  owe  to  a  "  little  red  school- 
house  "  in  the  town  of  Kinderhook,  some  twenty  miles 
from  here.  And  little  old  Kinderhook  has  played  large 
in  the  school  history  of  New  York.  In  Kinderhook 
Washington  Irving  found  Ichabod  Crane,  the  typical 
schoolmaster  of  literature,  and  in  Kinderhook's  grave- 
yard sleeps  Ichabod  Crane,  immortalized  by  Irving,  mem- 
orialized by  a  marble  shaft  and  revered  by  every  true 
Kinderhookian.  It  was  a  "  little  red  schoolhouse  "  in 
Kinderhook  which  gave  all  the  education  he  ever  had  to 
that  master  of  men  and  formulator  of  issues,  who  lifted 
himself  by  his  own  bootstraps  from  a  barefoot  boy  to  the 
presidency  of  the  United  States  —  I  refer  to  the  Chester- 
field of  American  politics,  Martin  VanBuren,  one  of  the 
best  friends  of  public  education  that  America  ever  had. 


Inauguration  Proceedings  77 

VanBuren  never  forgot  what  he  owed  to  education  and 
education  will  never  forget  what  it  owes  to  him. 

I  know  the  public  schools,  and,  because  I  know  them, 
I  refuse  to  be  disturbed  by  those  who  seek,  from  time  to 
time,  to  alarm  the  nation  with  gloomy  forebodings  and 
dire  predictions.  For  when  they  tell  us  that  danger 
threatens  the  institutions  of  the  Republic,  when  they  warn 
us  that  the  ship  of  state  is  drifting  into  perilous  waters, 
when  the  cynic  grows  faint-hearted  and  the  credulous 
becomes  discouraged,  I  hear  the  bells  ringing  from  ten 
thousand  public  schools  and  my  heart  grows  warm  again. 

I  see  twenty  million  children  marching  into  the  schools 
that  dot  the  hills  and  valleys  from  Maine  to  Mexico.  I 
watch  them  conning  their  readers  and  thumbing  their  his- 
tories. I  see  them  being  molded  into  American  citizens 
and  I  know  that  America  can  make  no  mistake  which 
America  can  not  rectify. 

It  is  a  great  task,  Doctor  Finley,  a  noble  duty  with 
which  the  State  of  New  York  charges  you  today.  You 
are  being  placed  at  the  head  of  the  schools  in  the  greatest 
State  of  the  Union.  New  York  is  giving  into  your  keep- 
ing the  eager  minds  of  its  children;  it  is  entrusting  you 
with  the  care  of  its  future  citizens. 

New  York  does  so  with  confidence.  It  has  studied 
you  and  knows  you.  It  has  reviewed  your  record  and 
found  it  inspiring,  it  has  inquired  into  your  capacities  and 
is  convinced  that  they  measure  up  to  the  full  dignity  and 
importance  of  your  office.  You  have  been  successful  in 
everything  else  you  have  undertaken;  we  know  you  will 
be  successful  in  the  duties  you  assume  today. 

Sparta's  education  made  soldiers;  Rome's  education 
made  orators;  New  York's  education,  under  your  guid- 
ance, must  make  men.  The  three  R's  have  long  been 


78  The  University  of  the  State  of  NeJ»  York 

the  square  and  the  compass.  The  time  has  come  when 
they  should  be  superseded  by  the  three  H's,  Head  and 
Heart  and  Hand.  Times  change,  sings  old  Horace, 
and  we  change  with  them.  The  romance  of  chivalry  is 
giving  way  to  the  poetry  of  mechanism.  Kipling's  "  Song 
of  Steam  "  supplants  Tennyson's  "  King  Arthur  and  His 
Table  Round;"  the  "Man  on  Horseback"  salutes 
"The  Man  with  the  Hoe."  And  we  must  meet  the 
change. 

May  all  good  fortune  attend  you  in  your  task.  May 
you  find  on  every  hand  the  support  and  encouragement 
that  your  solemn  duty  deserves.  And  may  all  who  serve 
under  you  remember  that  the  real  temple  of  the  State's 
liberties  is  not  the  Capitol,  where  the  State's  laws  are 
made,  not  the  Courts,  where  the  State's  laws  are  inter- 
preted and  enforced,  but  rather  this  beautiful  building  in 
which  we  are  gathered,  from  which  the  truths  that  under- 
lie all  law  and  all  discipline  will  be  carried  to  the  future 
citizens  who  must  obey  and  defend  those  laws. 

Our  hopes,  our  aspirations  and  our  prayers  accompany 
you  as  you  enter  upon  your  labors  and,  with  confidence 
and  pride,  we  salute  you  caretaker  of  our  liberties,  guard- 
ian of  our  children,  keeper  of  the  pathway  to  our  stars. 


ADDRESS  BY  FRANKLIN  K.  LANE 
Secretary  of  the  Interior 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  as  a  reward  for  that  very  cour- 
teous rising  vote  I  shall  spare  you  an  essay.  I  saw  by  the 
program  on  arriving  here  that  I  was  to  deliver  something 
entitled  an  address.  This  is  the  first  news  to  me  that 
there  was  any  such  expectation.  On  the  contrary,  it  was 
stipulated  in  the  bond  that  if  I  came  I  should  be  called 
upon  to  say  no  more  than  a  word,  but  the  idea  appears 
to  be  that  every  man  who  is  in  public  life  can  upon  any 
occasion,  or  upon  no  occasion,  be  called  upon  for  some- 
thing that  is  called  an  address.  We  grow  into  the  habit 
of  thinking  that  all  lawyers  are  statesmen,  but  probably 
there  is  no  greater  absurdity  obtaining  in  the  United  States. 
We  know  that  some  lawyers  are  not  statesmen  just  as  we 
know  that  some  newspaper  men  are.  Speaking  of  news- 
paper men  reminds  me  of  Kinderhook  and  I  remember 
that  there  was  another  Martin  that  came  from  Kinderhook. 

I  suppose  that  I  am  honored  with  this  invitation  be- 
cause of  my  position.  I  have  come  because  of  the  desire 
to  extend  a  personal  and  an  official  word  of  congratulation 
to  the  State  of  New  York.  Never  has  she  done  herself 
prouder  than  in  the  selection  of  this  man  for  the  head  of 
The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York.  I  have  come 
also  that  I  might  learn  of  your  University  and  see  if  it  is 
not  possible,  fashioning  ourselves  upon  your  model,  to 
develop  something  for  the  people  of  the  United  States 
that  in  time  would  develop  into  as  great  and  useful  an 
agency  as  that  which  you  have  here.  As  Secretary  of 
the  Interior  I  am  the  head  of  what  is  known  as  the 
Bureau  of  Education  and  therefore  the  representative  of 


80  The  University  of  the  State  of  NeJ»  York 

all  there  is  of  the  educational  forces  of  the  United  States. 
In  my  last  report  I  said  to  Congress  that  either  that 
bureau  should  be  given  sufficient  equipment  to  make  it 
competent  to  help  the  students  and  the  teachers  and 
the  schools  of  the  United  States,  or  that  it  should  be 
abolished.  Its  chief  function  at  the  present  time  is  to 
gather  statistics.  The  thing  that  it  does  best  is  to  care 
for  the  reindeer  in  Alaska.  In  another  sense  I  am  con- 
nected with  the  educational  institutions  of  the  United 
States  because  I  have  under  my  care  the  Indian  schools, 
which  are  among  the  best  of  the  schools  in  this  country. 
We  have  some  agricultural  schools  that  I  think  will  rank 
with  those  of  the  State  of  New  York,  or  of  the  state  of 
Illinois. 

There  is  another  function  with  which  the  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  has  to  do,  and  this  is  perhaps  the 
only  connection  in  which  you  have  ever  heard  of  that 
position.  He  is  supposed  to  be  the  conservator  of  the 
resources  of  the  United  States.  He  conserves  the  land 
that  it  may  not  fall  into  the  hands  of  monopoly,  so  that 
there  will  be  an  opportunity  for  the  boy  of  tomorrow  to 
get  a  farm.  He  conserves  the  coal  so  that  that  resource 
may  not  be  soon  exhausted.  He  conserves  the  forests 
and  the  lands  of  the  Indians,  and  I  hope  soon,  the  in- 
valuable radium  of  the  country.  He  conserves  the  water 
power,  that  resource  from  which  in  the  future  we  must 
draw  so  extensively  for  our  lights  and  our  fuel  and  our 
power.  Why  should  not  that  officer  be  a  conservator  of 
another  kind  —  conserve  the  body  and  the  brain  of  the 
young  of  this  country?  What  more  valuable  service 
can  be  done  than  to  put  to  the  highest  beneficial  use  the 
young  mind,  the  young  American  body  and  the  young 
American  brain?  How  may  this  be  done?  We  can 


Inauguration  Proceedings  81 

do  nothing  as  a  federal  government  save  by  stimulating 
youth.  We  can  take  on  the  methods  you  have  adopted 
here  if  we  can  find  a  man  such  as  Doctor  Finley  to  put 
in  charge  of  such  a  bureau  as  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  should  have.  My  friends,  we  have  only 
begun  to  realize  how  wasted  are  the  lives  and  energies 
and  capacities  of  our  young  men  and  women  and  our 
boys  and  girls. 

Work  does  no  one  harm;  idleness  finally  corrupts  the 
best  training  that  men  and  women  can  have.  We  are 
holding  our  young  men  and  our  girls  down  in  the  cities 
and  on  the  farms  so  that  they  have  no  opportunity  to  rise 
and  become  those  citizens  that  we  expect  them  to  be.  I 
hope  that  the  three  H's  of  which  the  Governor  spoke 
will  be  deeply  imbedded  in  the  platform  of  the  people 
of  New  York  State,  because  we  need  not  only  learning, 
not  erudition  alone,  we  need  more  particularly  heart  and 
hope  in  our  work.  It  is  not  mere  book  learning  that 
makes  men  good  citizens,  or  that  makes  men  able  and 
great  in  the  world  of  affairs.  Above  and  beyond  all 
else  it  is  character  and  faith. 

There  is  no  place  in  politics  and  no  place  in  the  United 
States  for  the  man  who  is  a  cynic,  for  the  man  who  does 
not  have  hope  in  our  institutions  and  confidence  in  him- 
self and  in  the  future  of  our  land.  The  man  who  makes 
America  is  the  man  who  believes  not  alone  in  the  public 
schools  but  who  believes  in  the  possibilities  of  our  land. 

The  public  schools  can  be  made  useful  only  as  they 
train  the  boy's  hand  as  well  as  his  head.  Some  time  ago  I 
was  at  a  rather  unique  function,  a  Chinese  dinner,  and 
opening  each  course  there  was  served  some  particular 
thing  which  went  to  satisfy  another  taste  than  that  of 
appetite.  A  beautiful  picture  was  handed  around  the 


82  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

table  between  the  courses,  then  came  a  singer  who  sang 
a  poem  written  by  the  man  who  gave  the  dinner,  and  then 
came  around  a  crystal  bowl  which  went  from  hand  to 
hand  for  each  one  to  feel;  and  so,  in  one  way  or  another, 
each  sense  was  gratified  during  that  dinner.  They  had 
learned  to  cultivate  and  make  use  of  eyes  and  of  ears 
and  of  touch.  Helen  Keller  has  been  called  the  great- 
est woman  of  all  time  and  the  greatest  personality  that 
America  has  ever  produced.  Why?  Because  she  has 
developed  her  sense  of  touch,  because  she  has  learned  to 
become  mistress  of  the  learning  of  the  world  through  her 
fingers.  So  it  is  and  it  must  be  that  the  boys  and  the 
girls  of  the  United  States,  if  they  are  to  become  thor- 
oughly educated,  must  become  masters  of  themselves 
and  first  masters  of  their  senses.  We  pass  by  birds  the 
names  of  which  we  do  not  know,  we  walk  under  stars 
and  can  not  give  the  name  of  a  single  constellation,  we 
tread  the  forests  and  we  do  not  know  the  trees. 

Our  boys  and  girls  have  not  been  trained  to  use  their 
senses;  they  have  been  trained  out  of  letters  in  books,  but 
you  can  not  make  men  and  women  out  of  letters  in  books. 
To  be  educated  is  to  be  alive,  to  have  the  whole  being 
alive  and  be  there  at  all  times.  That  is  the  thing  that 
has  made  Helen  Keller,  that  is  the  thing  that  made 
Napoleon  —  to  be  able  to  concentrate  all  your  forces 
and  all  your  strength  at  one  point  and  be  alive  not  only 
to  the  thing  that  lies  on  the  printed  page,  but  to  the  thing 
that  is  of  important  moment  around  you  and  to  be  able 
to  put  your  mind  upon  every  problem  that  arises.  This 
is  true  education  and  upon  a  basis  such  as  that  you  will 
find  men  and  women  rise  up  who  will  have  character  and 
if  that  character  is  modified,  strengthened  and  ennobled 


Inauguration  Proceedings  83 


by  conscience  you  will  have  a  people  and  get  a  citizenry 
that  will  be  a  pride  and  honor  to  a  Republic. 

The  State  of  New  York  is  a  great  state  and  so  we  must 
expect  great  things  from  her.  You  are  the  big  brother 
of  all  the  states.  We  in  the  West  look  to  you  for  guid- 
ance in  educational  matters.  We  look  to  see  whether 
you  pay  your  teachers  well  or  not,  whether  the  teachers 
of  this  State  are  getting  $30  a  month,  whether  the  pro- 
fession of  teaching  is  degraded  or  ennobled,  whether  you 
give  a  high  place  to  your  teacher  as  they  do  in  Europe, 
or  whether  you  put  him  in  the  back  rank.  There  is  no 
use  in  talking  education  unless  the  educator  is  treated  with 
dignity.  The  American  people  have  one  test  that  is 
superior  to  other  tests  when  it  comes  to  rank,  and  you 
will  never  have  an  educational  system  in  this  State  unless 
you  have  men  and  women  as  teachers  whom  you  respect; 
and  you  will  not  respect  them  unless  you  pay  them  well. 
So  I  say,  you  are  the  big  brother  to  all  of  us  and  I  ask 
that  you  will  be  worthy  of  the  position  that  you  have  in 
our  affections  and  that  you  lay  out  here  a  model  sys- 
tem of  education  that  we  of  the  West  may  imitate,  and 
that  you  may  further  develop  this  great  invention,  this 
University  of  yours.  I  am  proud  in  the  confidence  that 
the  man  you  have  chosen  for  this  position  will  do  all  that 
is  humanly  possible  and  make  New  York's  name  a  great 
credit  throughout  the  world  as  an  educational  force. 


ADDRESS  BY  CHARLES  WILLIAM  ELIOT 

President  Emeritus  of  Harvard  University 

The  position  into  which  Doctor  Finley  has  been  this 
day  inducted  is  unique,  so  far  as  I  know,  in  the  United 
States.  He  is  at  once  President  of  The  University  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  an  examining  and  certifying 
university,  and  State  Commissioner  of  Education.  These 
two  titles,  now  for  the  first  time  combined,  indicate  that 
the  incumbent  may  exercise  a  large  influence  and  some 
measure  of  control  over  the  entire  range  of  public  educa- 
tion, from  the  kindergarten  through  the  university. 

Most  influential  educational  positions  in  this  country 
can  affect  directly  only  one  of  the  two  great  divisions  of 
education,  the  elementary  and  secondary  schools  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  colleges  and  universities  on  the  other. 
Doctor  Finley's  studies  and  labors  may  cover  the  whole 
field.  I  congratulate  Doctor  Finley,  first,  on  the  wide 
scope  of  his  work;  second,  on  the  moment  at  which  he 
enters  on  so  vast  a  labor,  a  time  of  extraordinary  develop- 
ment and  progress,  and  of  lively  social  awakening  to  new 
objects  and  ends  of  public  education. 

Greater  enlargements  of  educational  effort  have  been 
proposed  within  the  last  ten  years  than  in  any  previous 
period ;  and  in  some  respects  a  real  revolution  in  both  the 
subjects  and  the  methods  of  elementary  and  secondary 
education  is  well  started.  The  most  interesting  times  in 
education  and  politics  are  the  times  of  rapid  evolution. 

I  speak  first  of  the  enlargements  of  education.  The 
conception  of  public  education  as  limited  to  childhood 
and  youth  has  already  been  greatly  modified.  On  every 
hand  we  see  an  increasing  utilization  of  schoolhouses  and 


86  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

school  equipment  for  the  benefit  of  adults  who  are  already 
earning  a  livelihood.  In  many  cities  the  schoolhouses  are 
utilized  as  social  centers  of  instruction  and  rational  enter- 
tainment. Evening  schools  for  young  men  and  women 
already  earning  wages  receive  much  more  attention  from 
municipalities  than  they  did  even  five  years  ago ;  and  after- 
noon and  evening  technical  schools,  Young  Men's  Chris- 
tian Association  classes,  and  correspondence  schools  for  the 
benefit  of  young  men  and  women  who  are  already  engaged 
in  a  trade,  or  other  skilled  occupation,  are  numerous  and 
thriving.  The  universities,  through  their  extension  depart- 
ments, share  amply  in  this  development  of  education  for 
the  adult.  The  United  States  Agricultural  Department, 
the  agricultural  departments  of  many  state  universities, 
and  the  General  Education  Board  endowed  by  Mr  John 
D.  Rockefeller,  have  demonstrated  within  the  last  ten 
years  the  enormous  value  to  the  country  of  instruction  in 
agriculture  and  economics,  given  by  well-equipped  itin- 
erant instructors  directly  to  farmers  and  the  grown-up 
sons  and  daughters  of  farmers,  and  followed  by  local 
competitions  and  demonstrations.  The  summer  schools, 
which  have  multiplied  so  rapidly  during  the  last  ten  years, 
have  proved  highly  serviceable  to  thousands  of  adults 
who  have  already  entered  on  teaching  or  other  intellectual 
calling.  State  and  city  libraries  lend  books  all  over 
their  respective  territories,  soon  with  the  effective  aid  of 
the  parcel  post.  Many  of  the  reform  movements,  in 
which  far-seeing  and  public-spirited  men  and  women 
have  recently  engaged,  require  a  large  amount  of  public 
teaching  before  they  can  be  effectively  organized  and  car- 
ried into  practice;  and  most  of  these  reforms  endeavor  to 
use  directly  and  indirectly  the  services  of  the  schools, 
colleges,  and  universities,  and  to  utilize  their  equipment. 


Inauguration  Proceedings  87 

On  this  comparatively  new  educational  work  the  success 
of  many  social  reforms  absolutely  depends;  such,  for  ex- 
ample, as  the  reform  of  the  civil  service,  the  temperance 
reform,  the  diminution  of  infant  mortality,  all  the  new 
projects  in  preventive  medicine,  and  all  the  new  eugenic 
proposals.  The  promoters  of  these  reforms  are  all  preach- 
ing, teaching,  and  exhorting,  and  their  work  is  funda- 
mentally educational.  In  a  democracy  there  is  no  other 
way  to  effect  the  needed  progressive  improvements  in 
government,  industries,  and  social  life.  The  enlarge- 
ment of  the  function  of  public  education,  and  the  im- 
provement of  its  methods,  are  to  be  the  mainstays  of 
free  institutions.  To  this  mighty  enginery  your  new  Com- 
missioner of  Education  has  already  set  his  hand. 

Another  kind  of  enlargement  is  taking  place  within 
the  present  educational  structure.  Great  efforts  are  put 
forth  to  keep  children  longer  in  school  before  they  go  to 
work;  to  establish  continuation  schools  for  children  from 
fourteen  to  sixteen  years  of  age;  to  improve  superintend- 
ence by  authorizing  several  towns  to  employ  one  super- 
intendent; to  create  one  good,  well-equipped,  well-graded 
central  school,  to  which  children  living  at  a  distance  are 
transported  at  the  town's  or  the  state's  expense,  instead 
of  several,  small,  scattered,  ungraded  schools;  to  provide 
in  cities  a  variety  of  secondary  schools  for  both  sexes  in 
addition  to  the  traditional  high  school,  such,  for  instance, 
as  commercial  and  mechanic  arts  high  schools.  All  these 
interior  modifications  of  the  public  school  system  require 
the  cooperation  of  parents,  pupils,  and  industrial  and 
commercial  establishments  to  carry  out  and  make  effective 
the  improvements.  They  also  involve  many  changes  of 
subjects  and  methods  within  the  schools  themselves,  par- 
ticularly in  the  grades.  Although  beginnings  have  been 


88  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

made  in  many  American  communities  in  several  of  these 
directions,  the  bulk  of  the  work  in  the  country  at  large 
still  remains  to  be  done ;  and  the  great  State  of  New  York 
is  no  exception  in  this  respect. 

These  improvements  have  been  set  on  foot  in  response 
to  new  conceptions  of  the  objects  to  be  attained  through 
public  education.  For  the  great  majority  of  children  the 
ultimate  object  of  schooling,  forty  years  ago,  was  to  en- 
able them  to  read  and  write,  and  to  do  simple  ciphering. 
Those  slight  acquisitions  at  fourteen  years  of  age  were 
all  that  the  mass  of  mankind  was  supposed  to  need  in 
order  to  earn  a  livelihood,  and  take  a  fair  part  in  the  pro- 
cesses of  free  government.  The  situation  is  completely 
changed  today.  For  the  earning  of  a  good  livelihood 
today  the  workman  needs  much  more  than  the  bare  ele- 
ments of  reading,  writing  and  arithmetic,  which  after  all 
are  only  the  tools  of  education  or  keys  of  knowledge; 
he  needs  a  deal  of  information  to  enable  him  to  con- 
duct his  own  life  safely  and  happily,  and  he  needs 
some  sort  of  skill  of  eye  and  hand.  Furthermore,  the 
voter  urgently  needs  to  know  something  about  the  struc- 
ture and  function  of  modern  governments,  of  democratic 
society,  of  the  human  body,  and  of  industrial  organiza- 
tion. None  of  these  subjects  was  alluded  to  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  fifty  years  ago,  and  even  now  they  receive 
but  scanty  attention.  The  functions  of  government  have 
developed  so  rapidly  within  the  past  fifty  years,  and 
touch  so  nearly  the  well-being  of  the  community,  that 
every  voter  needs  to  understand  what  the  functions  of 
government  really  are,  and  under  what  conditions,  and 
by  what  sort  of  officials,  they  can  be  well  discharged. 
Government,  today,  is  expected  to  take  care  of  the  pub- 
lic health,  to  regulate  industries  and  commerce,  to  prevent 


Inauguration  Proceedings  89 

some  monopolies  and  to  regulate  others;  to  supervise  all 
the  means  of  transportation  by  which  cities  live;  to  con- 
struct, maintain,  and  operate  vital  public  works;  and  to 
conduct  great  systems  of  public  education.  These  func- 
tions are  numerous,  essential,  and  difficult;  and  none  but 
highly  trained  men  can  perform  them.  Every  voter  needs 
to  understand  what  an  expert  is,  how  experts  are  trained, 
and  how  experts  should  be  utilized  in  the  public  service. 

It  is  only  within  about  forty  years  that  the  mass  of  the 
voters  began  to  use  their  power  to  control  the  government, 
which  previously  had  been  left  in  the  hands  of  the  better 
educated  and  more  prosperous  class.  The  real  experi- 
ment in  democratic  government  is  still  to  be  tried;  and  it 
is  only  through  a  great  expansion  and  vivification  of  the 
functions  of  public  education  that  this  prodigious  experi- 
ment can  be  safely  tried. 

Next  I  must  sketch  the  new  subjects  and  methods  of 
instruction.  The  first  addition  that  needs  to  be  made  to 
the  instruction  now  given  in  the  secondary  schools,  and 
to  adults  already  earning  their  livelihood,  is  instruction  in 
the  elements  of  economics,  and  particularly  in  whatever 
relates  to  labor  and  capital  and  the  indispensable  union 
of  the  two  in  production,  and  to  the  distribution  of  neces- 
saries, comforts  and  luxuries,  the  ownership  of  the  instru- 
ments of  production,  the  relation  of  wages  to  prices,  the 
control  of  monopolies,  and  the  means  of  increasing  the 
efficiency,  and  therefore  the  well-being  of  the  entire  com- 
munity. There  would  be  great  danger  to  civilization  in 
the  coming  into  the  control  of  the  government  of  masses 
of  people  whose  ideas  on  these  subjects  were  crude,  mis- 
taken, or  perverse.  The  well-being  of  the  population  at 
large  can  be  increased  only  by  increasing  the  total  na- 
tional product  of  necessaries  and  comforts;  and  such  an 


90  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

increase  of  product  can  be  brought  about  only  by  in- 
creasing the  average  efficiency  of  the  whole  people  in 
their  work,  or  by  improving  the  economy  of  the  people 
in  the  distribution  and  intelligent  consumption  of  the  ag- 
gregate product.  Yet  many  people  seem  to  believe  that 
a  mere  rise  of  wages  can  of  itself,  without  increase  of 
product,  cause  an  increase  of  public  well-being.  It  is 
an  object  of  the  utmost  urgency  to  teach  on  a  great  scale 
both  young  people  and  adults,  that  capital  is  nothing  but 
the  agglomeration  of  those  portions  of  the  previous  profits 
of  capital  and  labor  combined  which  were  not  consumed 
at  the  time,  but  were  saved  to  be  used  in  future  produc- 
tion; and  that  these  savings  are,  as  a  rule,  necessarily  put 
into  lands  and  buildings,  roads,  railroads,  sewers,  water 
supplies,  power  plants,  mines,  and  factories,  which  then 
become  the  means  of  obtaining,  making,  or  transporting 
more  or  better  goods  for  the  population  of  succeeding 
years  to  consume.  What  an  admirable  function  for  a 
state  department  of  education  is  here  in  sight! 

The  urgent  need  of  a  democracy  for  instruction  in  eco- 
nomics is  well  measured  by  its  frequent  failure  to  elect  to 
office  efficient  and  honest  men,  capable  of  giving  the  peo- 
ple good  service.  The  progress  of  a  democracy  in  knowl- 
edge of  economics  will  be  best  indicated  by  its  increasing 
success  in  procuring  an  efficient  public  administration. 

The  last  fifteen  years  have  been  characterized  educa- 
tionally by  the  introduction  of  new  subjects  into  the  pub- 
lic school  system,  and  by  many  readjustments  of  the  pro- 
portions in  which  the  several  subjects  enter  into  school 
programs.  New  subjects  and  new  methods  have,  in 
some  measure,  penetrated  the  elementary  schools;  but 
naturally  the  secondary  schools  have  gained  most  in  re- 
gard to  variety  of  subjects  and  new  methods  of  teaching. 


Inauguration  Proceedings  91 

The  years  which  stretch  just  before  us  will  see  large  de- 
velopments in  both  these  directions.  Some  educational 
administrators  have  already  learned,  and  more  are  learn- 
ing, that  it  is  indispensable  for  a  public  school  to  give 
much  more  attention,  than  has  heretofore  been  given,  to 
the  systematic  training  of  the  senses,  and  to  implanting 
habits  of  close  observation,  accurate  recording,  and  care- 
ful comparing  of  records.  In  the  modem  industries  indi- 
vidual skill  of  eye  and  hand  tell  more  and  more  on  the 
individual's  earnings  and  the  total  productiveness.  Well- 
trained  senses  also  add  greatly  to  the  enjoyment  of 
rational  pleasures.  All  schools  must  hereafter  attend 
more  carefully  than  heretofore  to  this  training  of  the 
senses. 

The  subjects  through  which  the  senses  can  best  be 
trained  are  also  those  in  which  mental  application,  or 
control  by  the  will  over  mental  processes,  can  best  be 
practised.  Furthermore,  through  the  same  subjects  which 
best  afford  training  for  the  senses,  the  information  most 
needed  by  the  child  and  the  adult  of  today  may  best  be 
acquired.  What  are  these  subjects?  First,  the  sciences, 
such  as  chemistry,  physics,  and  biology;  second,  the 
household  arts;  third,  the  use  of  common  tools  in  the 
simple  trades;  fourth,  drawing;  and  fifth,  music. 

All  these  subjects  should  be  started  in  proper  sequence 
in  the  elementary  schools,  and  in  methods  carefully 
adapted  to  the  bodily  and  mental  development  of  the 
children;  and  all  of  them  should  be  carried  through  the 
secondary  schools.  There  is,  of  course,  nothing  new  in 
this  theoretical  prescription.  Herbert  Spencer  stated  it 
and  urged  it  aggressively  fifty-five  years  ago,  and  many 
other  educational  philosophers  have  pleaded  for  it. 
Spencer's  doctrine  that  science  was  the  knowledge  of 


92  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 


greatest  worth,  and  that  skill  in  the  arts  by  which  the  in- 
dividual and  the  community  live,  should  be  a  prime  ob- 
ject in  all  sorts  of  education,  gained  scanty  acceptance  in 
the  generation  to  which  he  belonged,  and  even  now  is  not 
the  cause  of  the  present  movement  toward  the  sciences 
and  the  useful  arts  as  means,  or  staple,  of  education. 
The  real  cause  of  the  present  American  tendencies  in 
education  is  the  new  and  complete  dependence  of  modern 
industries,  commerce,  and  government  on  applied  science 
working  through  mechanical  power,  machinery,  the  wiser 
utilization  of  natural  resources,  and  the  varied  skills 
which  human  beings  must  possess  in  order  to  direct  these 
new  agencies.  The  first  duty  in  the  education  of  the 
young  is  to  prepare  them,  effectively,  for  usefulness  and 
a  fruitful  life  in  the  actual  world  into  which  they  are 
soon  going  out  —  a  world  very  different  from  the  world 
of  1850,  and  even  of  1880.  This  is  the  justification  of 
the  popular  demand  for  vocational  training.  The  de- 
mand is  of  course  too  narrow;  it  should  cover  the  whole 
period  of  education  and  apply  to  all  educational  means 
and  methods. 

To  most  men  and  women  brought  up  on  language, 
literature,  history,  and  philosophy,  with  a  dash  of  incom- 
patible elementary  mathematics,  this  doctrine  is  repul- 
sive; it  seems  to  them  utilitarian,  materialistic,  and  unim- 
aginative, devoid  of  idealism  and,  almost,  of  morality. 
But  what  in  fact  are  the  effects  of  this  sort  of  training  on 
children  and  adults?  The  desirable  mental  and  moral 
effects  on  children  can  be  more  surely  attained  by  the 
new  training  than  by  the  old ;  and  if  we  look  at  the  mental 
and  moral  development  of  the  community  as  a  whole,  it 
is  plain  that  the  era  of  pure  and  applied  science,  which 
began  near  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century,  has 


Inauguration  Proceedings  93 

been  remarkable  for  ethical  development,  for  wonderful 
uses  of  the  human  imagination  in  new  fields,  for  amazing 
instances  of  the  power  of  the  human  mind  over  nature, 
and  for  extraordinary  demonstrations  of  the  attunement 
of  man's  mind  to  the  Creative  Intelligence.  Only  those 
who  know  little  or  nothing  about  the  sciences  conceive  of 
them  as  unesthetic,  unimaginative,  or  unmoral.  Regarded 
as  material  for  education,  they  are  charged  in  the  highest 
degree  with  beauty,  grace,  order,  and  rectitude. 

The  American  schools,  public,  private  and  endowed, 
have  always  tried  to  give  some  lessons  in  behavior,  man- 
ners, duty,  and  patriotism;  but  the  social  and  industrial 
experiences  of  the  past  twenty  years  prove  that  enlarge- 
ment of  this  sort  of  teaching  is  imperative. 

These  principles  will  be  illustrated  as  we  now  proceed 
to  consider  the  methods  of  teaching  the  sciences  and  arts 
in  the  elementary  and  secondary  schools.  When  we 
speak  of  training  the  senses,  just  what  do  we  mean?  Do 
we  not  mean  that  we  propose  to  train  the  child  to  see 
correctly  or  accurately,  to  touch  deftly  and  to  learn  more 
and  more  by  touching,  and  to  hear  with  precision  in  re- 
gard to  tone,  time,  rhythm,  and  inflection?  All  this  is, 
obviously,  training  in  accuracy,  in  doing  whatever  we  do 
just  right,  and  not  about  right,  or  well  enough.  When 
we  require  a  child  to  make  a  correct  report,  either  orally 
or  in  writing,  of  what  he  has  seen,  touched  or  heard,  we 
train  the  memory  and  the  power  of  expression  in  lan- 
guage; and  there  is  no  better  training  in  the  accurate  use 
of  the  native  language.  When  we  require  a  boy  to  plane 
a  board  to  a  true  level,  or  a  girl  to  produce  a  pudding  or 
a  cake  from  a  well-expressed,  accurate  receipt,  we  are 
training  him  or  her  to  win  moral  effects  on  his  or  her  char- 
acter as  well  as  a  material  result.  To  do  a  mechanical  or 


94  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

artistic  piece  of  work  thoroughly  is  much  more  than  the 
material  operation;  it  is  a  moral  achievement.  To  con- 
ceive, plan,  and  get  into  operation,  and  keep  profitable 
a  great  factory,  machine  shop,  mill,  or  mine,  requires  an 
immense  effort  of  the  imagination,  and  moral  qualities  of 
a  high  order.  The  transformation  wrought  in  business 
ethics  in  the  last  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  the 
first  years  of  the  twentieth,  has  proved  to  be  one  of  the 
great  moral  and  humanitarian  movements  of  modern  times 
— and  the  end  is  not  yet. 

The  uniform  method  of  teaching  the  sciences  and  arts 
at  school  must  be  the  laboratory  method,  which  calls  for 
accurate  observation  from  every  pupil,  and  attentive  use, 
every  day,  of  eyes,  ears  and  fingers.  In  the  rural  ele- 
mentary schools  much  of  this  work  should  be  done  out  of 
doors,  on  walks  and  excursions  to  see  in  operation  the 
forces  which  have  molded  and  are  molding  the  crust  of 
the  earth,  in  the  cultivation  of  vegetables  and  flowers, 
and  in  the  study  of  insects  and  domestic  animals.  In  the 
lower  grades  there  will  be  more  of  exposition  and  leading ; 
in  the  upper  grades,  and  the  secondary  schools,  more  of 
independent  work  on  the  part  of  the  pupil.  Accompany- 
ing all  the  laboratory  work  should  go  incessant  practice 
in  speaking  and  writing,  the  quality  and  quantity  being 
proportioned  to  the  age  of  the  pupil.  Books  and  reading 
should  hold  a  secondary,  but  still  an  important  place. 
Among  the  arts  to  be  acquired,  reading  aloud,  drawing, 
and  singing  should  hold  high  places;  for  there  is  invalu- 
able training,  as  well  as  great  utility,  in  all  three.  Draw- 
ing has  the  advantage  of  providing,  simultaneously,  ad- 
mirable training  for  both  eye  and  hand.  Music  is  highly 
desirable,  not  only  as  training  for  the  individual,  but  as 
imparting  a  high  and  durable  capacity  for  enjoyment,  and 


Inauguration  Proceedings  95 

• ;  > 

power  to  give  pleasure  to  others.  In  none  of  our  schemes 
of  education  have  we  thought  enough  about  this  power  — 
so  precious  in  its  effects  on  children  and  youth  —  of  giv- 
ing pleasure  to  other  people. 

All  the  while  the  child  should  have  it  in  mind  that  he  is 
acquiring  arts  and  faculties  which  will  enable  him  to  make 
himself  useful  to  others,  and  so,  by  and  by  to  earn  his 
own  livelihood  and  that  of  his  family.  The  normal 
human  loves  and  devotions  should  be  presented  as  motives. 
The  desire  for  approbation  and  for  success  in  competi- 
tions may  be  relied  on. 

An  important  distinction  between  this  method  in  edu- 
cation and  the  earlier  method,  is  that  it  leads  the  child  to 
personal  activity ;  it  teaches  through  action.  The  attitude 
of  the  child  toward  language,  literature,  history  and  phil- 
osophy is  ordinarily  that  of  passive  reception  or  absorp- 
tion. The  memory  is  exercised  on  words  and  on  sayings 
of  other  people.  The  child  hears  about  men  and  things; 
his  mind  plays  upon  stories,  descriptions,  narratives,  and 
poems;  not  on  real  things  and  persons  that  he  has  seen 
or  on  events  in  which  he  took  part.  There  is  a  wide  dif- 
ference for  training  purposes  between  absorbing  a  narra- 
tive written  by  another,  and  producing  a  narrative  your- 
self about  events  you  have  witnessed;  and  the  latter  is 
far  the  best  training  process.  Moreover,  the  latter  by  no 
means  excludes  the  former.  The  good  teacher  gets  a 
strong  reaction  from  the  child,  and  that  reaction  is  the  real 
training. 

It  is  already  demonstrated  that  normal  children  take 
much  more  interest  in  the  subjects  and  the  methods  here 
described,  than  they  do  in  the  subjects  and  methods  of  the 
old  regime;  and  this  increased  interest  in  school  work,  on 
the  part  of  the  children,  would  be  a  sufficient  argument  in 


96  The  University  of  the  State  of  Wen*  York 

favor  of  the  change.  Inasmuch  as  no  adult  or  well-trained 
person  can  ever  do  his  best  unless  he  is  thoroughly  inter- 
ested in  his  work,  it  may  be  assumed  that  no  child  can  do 
his  best  work  when  he  is  driven  to  a  task  which  he  dis- 
likes, or  to  which  he  is  indifferent.  Some  rather  archaic 
persons  maintain  that  there  is  no  discipline  in  work  which 
is  not  repulsive,  or  at  least  uninteresting ;  but  the  fact  seems 
to  be  that  work  done  without  interest  and  pleasure  is 
never  good  work  in  regard  to  either  intensity  or  rapidity. 
Child  work  without  interest  compares  with  interested  child 
work  just  as  slave  labor  compares  with  free  labor  — 
product  smaller  and  enjoyment  nil. 

I  lately  witnessed  in  a  private  school  in  Buffalo  an 
exhibition  of  the  Dalcroze  method  of  training  young  chil- 
dren and  adolescents  to  make  rhythmical  movements  of  the 
limbs,  head,  and  body  in  time  with  music;  no  apparatus 
was  used,  and  no  implements  of  any  sort.  The  move- 
ments were  slow  or  quick,  grave  or  gay,  and  were  highly 
enjoyable;  but  they  always  required  on  the  part  of  the 
child  two  mental  exertions  of  high  value.  First,  a  con- 
centrated attention  to  the  music,  with  instant  response 
to  any  change  of  rhythm  therein;  and  second,  complete 
inhibition  of  irrelevant  sights  and  sounds.  The  attention 
given  by  the  children,  moment  by  moment,  and  the  con- 
centration of  their  wills  on  the  sport  were  most  remark- 
able. The  immediate  physical  result  of  this  training  is 
the  improvement  the  children  exhibit  in  agility,  alertness, 
grace,  and  cooperative  skill,  but  the  most  important  result 
is  the  strenuous  training  of  mind  and  will;  for  the  mental 
power  and  the  self-control  acquired  in  these  exercises  are 
the  best  results  of  any  education,  since  they  are  applicable 
anywhere  to  any  subject.  An  agreeable  and  useful  out- 
come of  the  Dalcroze  method  of  rhythmical  movements  is 


Inauguration  Proceedings  97 

that  it  leads  straight  to  a  very  desirable  kind  of  active, 
graceful,  pleasurable,  animating  dancing.  The  Dalcroze 
method  is  a  strong  case  of  teaching  through  action  on  the 
part  of  the  pupil. 

The  need  of  instruction  at  school  in  the  use  of  the  oti 
dinary  tools  of  the  fundamental  trades  is  really  very 
urgent,  now  that  the  wages  in  the  building  trades  are  so 
high  that  the  house  owner  with  a  moderate  income  ought 
to  be  able  to  make  his  own  repairs ;  for  he  can  hardly  call 
any  mechanic  into  his  house  without  paying  him,  by  the 
day,  more  than  he  earns  himself.  The  need,  too,  of 
widely  diffused  instruction  in  the  art  of  cooking  has  long 
been  pressing;  but  it  is  much  more  pressing  now  that  the 
cost  of  food  in  this  country  has  risen  so  seriously.  For- 
tunately, with  skilful  cooking,  the  cost  of  feeding  an 
average  American  family  can  be  much  reduced  to  the 
great  advantage  of  the  family;  since  the  most  expensive 
elements  in  the  diet  which  an  ordinary  American  prefers 
are  hygienically  inexpedient. 

Within  three  or  four  years  the  American  public  has 
undergone  a  change  of  mind  regarding  teaching  in  schools 
and  colleges  what  is  called  social  hygiene  —  a  delicate  and 
difficult  subject,  which  ought  to  be  preceded  at  school  by 
instruction  in  the  elements  of  biology.  Nearly  everybody 
agrees  that  the  former  policy  of  silence  on  the  subject  of 
social  hygiene  has  failed,  and  yet  nearly  everybody  per- 
ceives that  it  is  impossible  to  teach  it  in  the  public  schools 
without  imposing  careful  limitations.  There  is  indeed 
very  serious  difficulty  in  providing,  in  the  great  public 
school  systems,  competent  instruction  in  the  sciences  and 
in  the  arts  which  depend  directly  on  applied  science,  for 
the  reason  that  well-trained  teachers  of  these  subjects  are 


98  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

but  few.  The  problem  of  the  educational  administrator 
always  is  how  to  get  into  practice  well-known  theories  in 
education,  long  since  accepted  by  the  educated  world  at 
large,  or  at  least  by  him.  This  is  to  be  Doctor  Finley's 
great  task;  to  get  into  practice  all  over  this  great  State, 
in  urban  and  rural  communities  alike,  principles  of  edu- 
cation which  the  leaders  of  educational  thought  have  es- 
tablished, but  have  never,  or  seldom,  seen  put  into  effective 
execution.  I  dare  say  that  the  first  problem  with  which 
your  new  Commissioner  of  Education  will  grapple,  will 
be  the  problem  of  training  teachers  for  the  new  work  he 
plans,  as,  for  instance,  for  the  laboratory  teaching  of  the 
sciences,  for  teaching  English  through  reading  aloud,  the 
daily  writing  of  accurate  descriptions  and  narratives,  the 
frequent  recitation,  and  the  occasional  opportunity  for 
dramatic  expression,  and  for  the  teaching  of  economics 
and  social  hygiene. 

Having  myself  retired  now  from  long  educational  serv- 
ice, I  may,  perhaps,  be  permitted  to  say  that  I  feel  the 
strongest  sympathy  with  Doctor  Finley  as  he  enters  upon 
his  new  functions.  Under  similar  conditions  I  undertook, 
forty-five  years  ago,  a  like  task  in  a  narrower  field;  the 
task  of  introducing  into  an  old  college,  whose  rules  and 
practices  had  been  rather  firmly  fixed  by  custom  and  tradi- 
tion, many  new  subjects  of  instruction  with  a  regulated 
freedom  of  election  for  the  student  among  all  the  subjects. 
Then  and  there  as  now  and  here,  an  educational  adminis- 
trator found  his  task  to  be  to  bring  into  use  educational 
principles  which  had  been  often  stated  and  sometimes 
partially  accepted,  but  never  given  free  play.  Mine  was 
a  difficult  but  inspiring  task,  as  Doctor  Finley's  will  be. 
The  veteran  heartily  congratulates  the  public  servant  in 


Inauguration  Proceedings  99 

his  prime  on  his  cheerful  prospects  and  wide  opportunities, 
and  also  on  the  difficulties  and  obstacles  he  will  certainly 
encounter;  his  prospects  and  opportunities  invite  him  to 
his  noble  task;  but  his  conflicts  with  discouragements  and 
doubts  will  reward  him  most,  and  in  the  end  make  his 
career  —  which  we  all  hope  will  be  long  —  memorable 
in  the  educational  history  of  this  State  and  of  the  country. 


ADDRESS  BY  J.  J.  JUSSERAND 

Ambassador  from  France 

Foreign  travelers  who  visited  this  city  at  the  time  when 
your  University  was  founded,  one  hundred  thirty  years 
ago,  usually  mentioned  that  they  had  been  there,  and  hav- 
ing nothing  to  add,  added  nothing.  Such  was  the  case, 
for  example,  with  Marquis  de  Chastellux,  Rochambeau's 
chief  of  staff.  A  great  city  has  now  risen  by  the  border 
of  the  Hudson  river,  the  worthy  capital  of  the  Em- 
pire State,  with  handsome  structures,  some  which  no 
traveler  could  pass  without  notice;  among  them  the  one 
where  we  now  stand,  a  temple  raised  to  learning. 

We  meet,  here,  Americans  and  French,  in  unity  of 
good  will,  on  an  important  occasion.  A  new  leader  of 
men  is  about  to  assume  power,  a  power  the  greater  that 
the  men  he  is  going  to  lead  are  to  be  young  men.  The 
future  is  not  in  our  hands  but  in  theirs.  To  assume  this 
great  task,  you  have  looked  around  and  considered  every 
possible  choice ;  wanting  a  man  of  experience  and  wisdom, 
with  a  kind  heart  and  a  strong  will,  of  ample  sympathies, 
knowing  his  country  and  others  too,  you  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  in  no  one  else  was  to  be  found  such  a  com- 
bination of  qualities,  and  you  selected  John  Huston 
Finley. 

To  the  good  wishes  which  have  been  offered  him  today 
on  behalf  of  the  universities,  colleges,  schools  and  citi- 
zens of  this  State,  and  also  of  the  educational  departments 
of  other  states,  it  is  my  happy  lot  to  be  able  to  add  the 
good  wishes  of  France. 

The  ancients,  as  you  know,  placed  amulets  in  the  cor- 
ner stones  of  their  newly  founded  buildings,  so  as  to  se- 


102  The  University  of  the  State  of  Ne»  York 

cure  luck  to  the  structure  and  its  inmates.  In  the  corner 
stone  of  many  of  the  chief  monuments  of  this  country,  a 
French  amulet  was  placed  and  proved  a  good  omen. 
One  was  used  when  that  mighty  structure  was  being 
raised,  visible  now  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  American 
Independence;  another  when  the  question  was  no  longer 
of  your  being  free,  but  of  your  being  great  and  when  we 
ceded  to  you  Louisiana ;  something  French  when  you  be- 
gan building  that  navy,  now  so  famous,  of  which  the  first 
man  of  war  was  made  after  a  French  model  and  the  flag 
was  first  solemnly  saluted  by  Lamotte  Piquet  at  Brest  on 
the  13th  of  February,  1778;  when  you  began  raising  the 
federal  city,  whose  plans  were  also  French ;  when  you  de- 
vised the  law  and  charter  of  this  University  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  and  two  Americans  of  fame,  Alexander 
Hamilton  and  James  Duane,  worked  at  it  with  the  French 
Huguenot  L'Homedieu,  one  of  those  men  from  French 
Rochelle  who  founded,  in  your  State,  that  New  Rochelle, 
whose  anniversary  we  were  commemorating  last  summer. 

I  come  in  my  turn,  and  not  merely  in  my  own  name  but 
in  that  of  my  nation,  I  bring  good  wishes,  at  the  beginning 
of  his  new  functions,  to  your  new  President;  may  such 
wishes  prove  as  lucky  to  him  as  those  brought  by  men  of 
my  blood  proved  to  your  nation,  when  they  visited  these 
shores  to  be  brothers  in  arms  to  George  Washington. 

I  am  the  freer  to  say  that  I  speak  in  the  name  of  France, 
that  President  Finley  is  well  known  there.  Knox  Col- 
lege, Princeton  University,  the  College  of  the  City  of 
New  York  are  not  the  only  places  where  his  voice  has 
been  heard.  He  has  taught  us  our  own  history,  he  has 
made  better  known  to  us  our  own  pioneers  and  coureurs 
de  bois,  those  hardy  men  of  early  days  who  dashed  into 
the  unknown,  along  the  Mississippi  valley  or  toward  the 


Inauguration  Proceedings  103 

Rockies  and  the  great  "  Western  sea,"  dotting  their  path 
with  luck-bringing  or  fame-bringing  amulets,  one  of  which 
recording  the  bold  ventures  of  the  Chevalier  de  la  Veren- 
drye,  something  this  time  like  a  real  material  amulet,  was 
discovered  last  summer  in  South  Dakota.  President  Fin- 
ley  spoke  to  delighted  crowds  in  that  old,  old  Sorbonne 
founded  in  the  time  of  Saint  Louis  by  Robert  de  Sorbon, 
for  sixteen  poor  masters  of  arts,  and  which  numbers  now 
1 7,500  students,  being  the  most  widely  attended  uni- 
versity of  today  or  of  any  day. 

When  Yorktown  had  been  captured  by  the  allied 
armies  of  the  thirteen  states  and  of  France,  Rochambeau 
and  his  troops  remained  one  year  more  in  America,  not 
knowing  for  sure  whether  the  war  was  or  not  really  fin- 
ished. During  that  period  he  received  numerous  addresses 
from  legislatures,  municipalities,  universities  and  colleges. 
One  was  from  the  College  of  William  and  Mary  at  Wil- 
liamsburg,  where  he  had  established  his  quarters:  "Among 
the  many  substantial  advantages,"  said  the  president  and 
professors,  "  which  this  country  has  already  derived  and 
which  must  ever  continue  to  flow  from  its  connection  with 
France,  we  are  persuaded  that  the  improvement  of  useful 
knowledge  will  not  be  the  least.  A  number  of  distin- 
guished characters  in  your  army  afford  us  the  happiest 
presage  that  science  as  well  as  liberty  will  acquire  vigor 
from  the  fostering  hand  of  your  nation."  Rochambeau's 
army  included,  in  fact,  one  member  and  one  future  mem- 
ber of  the  French  Academy,  and  some  of  his  officers  had 
profited  enough  by  their  university  education  to  be  able 
to  use  Latin  in  their  letters  to  learned  Americans,  whose 
native  language  was  to  them  unknown. 

The  presage  announced  in  the  address  from  the  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  College  has  been  fulfilled;  a  constant  ex- 


104  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

change  of  thoughts  and  views,  a  common  search  for  the 
best  democratic  solution  of  the  social  problems,  and  of  late 
years,  an  exchange,  not  simply  of  books  and  of  thoughts, 
but  of  men  too,  have  taken  place  to  the  great  good 
of  the  two  nations:  nations  which  are  different  enough  to 
try  different  experiments,  and  similar  enough  to  profit  by 
the  results  of  the  other's  attempts.  The  first  messenger  of 
learning  sent  by  one  of  the  two  countries  to  the  other  set 
an  example  that  will  not  be  easily  surpassed:  a  scientist, 
a  philosopher,  a  discoverer  of  nature's  secrets,  sent  by  you 
to  us  in  early  days,  Benjamin  Franklin.  The  exchange 
has  continued  since.  The  number  of  French  men  and 
women,  economists,  artists,  students,  thinkers,  tourists,  who 
come  to  study  the  great  Western  Republic  and  to  see 
Americans  in  action,  increases  from  year  to  year;  while 
the  number  increases  also  of  American  and  French  profes- 
sors who  go  and  teach  in  their  own  language  in  the  other 
country. 

President  Finley's  task  is  one  of  paramount  impor- 
tance and  responsibility ;  two  million  future  men,  two  mil- 
lion future  citizens  will  have,  in  a  measure,  their  minds  and 
characters  molded  in  accordance  with  his  views.  No  one 
has  any  misgivings,  everybody  rejoices  that  it  should  be 
so.  A  pioneer  by  birth  and  tastes,  a  friend  of  pioneers, 
as  his  admirable  studies  on  ours  show,  he  will  have  to  act 
as  a  pioneer,  exploring  those  unknown  lands,  young 
people's  minds,  discovering  the  sort  of  seed  that  will 
fructify,  clearing  their  souls  of  brambles  and  false  no- 
tions, cutting  off  useless  vegetation  to  let  in  light. 

Who  is  it  that  shapes  the  future  of  the  country?  Is  it 
the  statesman  with  his  laws  and  treaties?  The  war  min- 
ister with  his  armaments?  It  is  they  doubtless  in  a  way, 
but  more  than  they,  and  only  a  little  less  than  the  father 


Inauguration  Proceedings  105 

and  mother  whom  no  one  can  replace,  it  is  the  wise 
teacher  who  does  this.  The  future  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
young,  but  it  is  he  who  tells  them  what  to  do  with  it. 
It  is  he  who  gives  to  the  nation  that  without  which  treaties 
are  of  no  value,  laws  of  no  avail,  armaments  remain  in- 
effective: complete  men,  true  citizens. 

For  the  good  of  their  country,  for  their  own  also,  men 
need  more  and  more  to  learn.  Less  and  less  opportunity, 
less  and  less  success,  less  and  less  enjoyment  will,  as 
years  pass  by,  be  accessible  to  the  untaught.  In  the  six- 
teenth century  Bacon  wrote :  "  Crafty  men  contemn 
studies,  simple  men  admire  them,  wise  men  use  them.'* 
From  which  may  be  deducted  that  all  who  do  not  use 
them,  be  they  simple  or  crafty,  since  they  are  not  wise 
men,  are  fools.  And  what  is  a  fool  ?  A  popular  proverb 
answers:  "A  wise  man's  ladder."  Better  play  the  part 
of  the  wise  man  than  of  the  ladder. 

Between  the  New  York  system  of  education  and  ours, 
there  is  much  resemblance;  our  aims  are  similar,  our  dif- 
ficulties too.  The  intervention  of  the  state  exercised 
through  the  ministry  of  public  instruction,  as  it  is  here 
through  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  has  to  be  felt; 
general  rules  of  discipline,  the  general  order  of  studies 
are  regulated  by  the  state.  Yet  liberty  must  be  respected, 
freedom  of  thought,  of  research,  of  system,  of  methods. 
The  fair  combination  between  the  two  needs  a  fine  sense 
of  measure  and  logic  —  a  thing  to  which  we  attribute 
much  importance.  Nothing  easier  than  to  be  an  extremist, 
no  mind  so  brutal  and  untaught  that  can  not  be  one.  It 
is  one  of  our  thinkers,  Montesquieu,  who  said :  '  The 
natural  place  of  virture  is  by  the  side  of  liberty ;  but  virtue 
can  no  more  be  found  by  the  side  of  liberty  carried  to  the 
extreme  than  by  the  side  of  servitude."  Montesquieu 


106  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

said  also :  '  The  same  distance  that  exists  between 
heaven  and  earth,  the  same  exists  between  the  true  spirit 
of  equality  and  the  spirit  of  extreme  equality." 

In  the  middle  ages  Paris,  whose  university  had  been 
founded  in  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  was  the 
chief  center  of  studies.  "  Paris,"  wrote  a  foreign  ob- 
server, Bartholomew  the  Englishman,  a  contemporary  of 
Saint  Louis,  "has  raised  the  standard  of  learning  and 
civilization,  not  only  in  France,  but  in  all  the  rest  of 
Europe."  In  the  midst  of  this  busy  world,  when  centers 
of  learning  have  multiplied,  nobody  being  willing  any 
more  to  play  the  humble  part  of  a  wise  man's  ladder, 
Paris  sees  again  many  people  from  many  lands  flock  to  her 
for  their  tuition.  Among  that  unique  number  of  1  7,500 
students,  over  3500  are  foreign;  twenty  years  ago  there 
were  only  457;  almost  every  nationality  is  represented; 
one  of  the  least  numerous  body  of  such  students  is,  strange 
to  say,  the  Americans,  there  being  twice  as  many  Ger- 
mans as  there  are  citizens  of  this  Republic. 

Our  tuition,  like  yours,  has  a  double  object:  first  to 
impart  knowledge,  to  show  the  way  to  acquire  it,  and  to 
impress  strongly  on  the  mind  that  there  is  no  science  so 
dry  that  does  not  find  its  raison  d'etre  in  life.  There  can 
never  be  enough  accuracy;  but  one  can  be  accurate  and 
yet  preserve  the  feeling  that  it  is  in  view  of  progress,  of 
movement  of  the  living  that  one  thinks,  studies,  writes. 
Then,  and  moreover,  great  pains  are  taken  to  dis- 
cipline minds  and  form  characters,  to  cause  them  to 
shun  obscurity  and  exaggeration,  to  observe  logic, 
and  above  all  to  keep  a  sense  of  measure  and  propor- 
tion. Such  a  discipline  teaches  that  probity  in  labor 
which  has  ever  been  our  universities'  ideal,  as  it  is  our 


Inauguration  Proceedings  107 

workshops'  ideal.  Few  things  are  more  dangerous  for 
men  than  to  start  in  life  with  the  feeling,  either  that  it  is 
enough  to  do  anything  half  well,  or  with  a  blunted  sense 
of  relativity  and  proportion.  The  road  to  success  is 
barred  in  the  first  case;  pitfalls  lie  on  the  road  in  the 
second.  For  many  men  with  the  latter  disposition,  the 
journey  may  begin  brilliantly,  but  it  will  end  in  failure; 
learning  will  not  be  a  help,  but  an  aggravation ;  they  will 
only  rise  unde  altior  esset  casus.  Those  who  will  have 
submitted  to  the  necessary  discipline  are,  on  the  contrary, 
sure  to  succeed,  whatever  be  the  branch  of  human  activ- 
ity they  choose  for  their  career.  Our  business  men  re- 
cently issued  a  statement  demanding  that  the  young  men 
who  wanted  to  follow  a  business  career  should  first  re- 
ceive a  university  training.  It  was  not,  of  course,  because 
they  thought  that  the  ability  to  construe  the  Latin  or 
Greek  lines  of  Virgil  or  Homer  was,  in  itself,  a  help 
in  trade  or  banking;  what  they  wanted  their  future  as- 
sistants to  get  was  that  sort  of  discipline,  that  habit  of 
considering  every  side  of  each  proposition,  that  sense  of 
proportion  which  is  given  at  the  same  time  as  such 
knowledge. 

Thus  are  formed  strong  nations  of  successful,  sensible, 
reasonable  men,  firmly  holding  together,  even  in  stormy 
days,  different  in  race,  language  and  origin  though  their 
ancestors  may  have  been.  What  is  a  nation?  *  The  es- 
sence of  a  nation,"  wrote  Renan,  "  is  that  all  individuals 
composing  it  should  have  many  things  in  common,  and 
have  also  forgotten  together  many  things.  Language,  in- 
terests, religion,  affinities,  geography,  military  necessities 
are  insufficient  if,  to  them,  is  not  added  the  common  pos- 
session of  a  rich  inheritance  of  souvenirs  and  a  desire  to 


108  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

live  together.  To  have  common  glories  in  the  past,  to 
have  done  great  things  together,  to  want  to  do  more  still, 
such  is  the  essential  condition  for  being  one  people." 

The  French  and  the  American  nations  are  very  differ- 
ent, they  live  far  apart,  their  ways  are,  in  many  respects, 
quite  dissimilar.  Yet  there  is  between  them  a  peculiar 
link  that  does  not  usually  exist  under  such  circumstances; 
and  why?  The  reason  is  that  they  have  a  rich  inheritance 
of  common  souvenirs;  they  have  common  glories,  they 
have  done  great  things  together  and  they  have  the  same 
earnest  longing  for  better  conditions,  for  a  happiness  more 
accessible  to  all,  for  more  justice,  a  fairer  share,  for  the 
many,  of  the  goods  and  beauty  of  this  world. 

An  American  event  is  sure  to  have  an  echo  in  a  French 
heart.  From  my  heart  I  offer  to  your  President  the  con- 
gratulations and  good  wishes  of  France. 


ACCREDITED  DELEGATES 


Accredited  Delegates 

UNIVERSITY  OF  GLASGOW 

A.  A.  Bowman,  Professor  of  Logic,  Princeton  Uni- 
versity 
D.  Norman  Smith 

ROYAL  FREDERIK'S  UNIVERSITY 
Nils  Backer  Grondahl 

UNIVERSITY  OF  NORWAY 
Nils  Backer  Grondahl 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO 

William  Renwick  Riddell 

QUEENS  UNIVERSITY  OF  BELFAST 
J.  Milne  Barbour 
Robert  Foster  Kennedy 

UNIVERSITY  OF  MANITOBA 

Edward  P.  Fetherstonhaugh,  Professor  of  Electri- 
cal Engineering 

LEEDS  UNIVERSITY 

Henry  Drysdale  Dakin 

NATIONAL  UNIVERSITY  OF  IRELAND 
The  Registrar 

UNIVERSITY  OF  SASKATCHEWAN 
D.  P.  McColl 

HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 

James  Handasyd  Perkins,  Alumnus 

YALE  UNIVERSITY 

Henry  P.  Warren,  Principal,  Albany  Academy 


112  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

AMERICAN  PHILOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY 

John  M.  Clarke,  Director  of  Science,  University  of 
the  State  of  Neiv  York 

PRINCETON  UNIVERSITY 

Howard  McClenahan,  Dean  of  the  College 

COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 

Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  President 

George  A.  Plimpton,  Treasurer  of  Barnard  College 

Virginia  C.  Gildersleeve,  Dean,  Barnard  College 

Henry  Hurd  Rusby,  Dean,  College  of  Pharmacy 

James  E.  Russell,  Dean,  Teachers  College 

V.  Everit  Macy,  Chairman,  Board  of  Trustees, 

Teachers  College 
Frederick  P.  Keppel,  Dean,  Columbia  College 

RUTGERS  COLLEGE 

W.  H.  S.  Demarest,  President 
A.  T.  Clearwater,  Trustee 
Howard  N.  Fuller,  Alumnus 
Robert  C.  Pruyn,  Alumnus 

DARTMOUTH  COLLEGE 

Ernest  Fox  Nichols,  President 

DICKINSON  COLLEGE 

Eugene  A.  Noble,  President 

UNIVERSITY  OF  PITTSBURGH 

Samuel  Black  McCormick,  Chancellor 

GEORGETOWN  UNIVERSITY 

Alphonsus  J.  Donlon,  President 

WILLIAMS  COLLEGE 

Henry  D.  Wild,  Professor  of  Latin 
Francis  Lynde  Stetson,  Trustee 


Inauguration  Proceedings  1  I  3 

UNION  UNIVERSITY 

Charles  Alexander  Richmond,  President 
Willis  G.  Tucker,  Dean,  Albany  College  of  Phar- 
macy 

William  A.  Larkin,  Albany  College  of  Pharmacy 
DeWitt  Clinton,  Librarian 
Frank  Sargent  Hoffman,  Professor  of  Philosophy 

MlDDLEBURY  COLLEGE 

John  M.  Thomas,  President 

UNIVERSITY  OF  GEORGIA 

George  Foster  Peabody,  Former  Trustee 

NEW  YORK  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 
Robert  H.  Kelby,  Librarian 

ACADEMY  OF  NATIONAL  SCIENCES 

John  M.  Clarke,  Director  of  Science,  University  of 
the  State  of  New  York 

UNIVERSITY  OF  VIRGINIA 

R.  L.  Harrison,  Alumnus 

COLGATE  UNIVERSITY 

Elmer  Burritt  Bryan,  President 

AUBURN  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 
John  Quincy  Adams,  Librarian 

AMHERST  COLLEGE 

John  M.  Clarke,  Director  of  Science,  University  of 
the  State  of  New  York 

BROOKLYN  INSTITUTE  OF  ARTS  AND  SCIENCES 
Franklin  W.  Hooper,  Director 
A.  Augustus  Healy,  President,  Board  of  Trustees 
George  W.  Brush,  Trustee 


114  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

HOBART  COLLEGE 

Lyman  P.  Powell,  President 

WESTERN  RESERVE  UNIVERSITY 
Charles  F.  Thwing,  President 

NEW  YORK  UNIVERSITY 

Elmer  Ellsworth  Brown,  Chancellor 
Clarence  D.  Ashley,  Dean,  School  of 
Daniel  W.  Hering,  Dean,  Graduate  Faculty 
Thomas  M.  Balliet,  Dean,  School  of  Pedagogy 
William  J.  Coates,  Dean,  Veterinary  College 
Charles  H.  Snow,  Dean,  School  of  Applied  Science 
James  E.  Lough,  Director,  Summer  School 

WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY 

William  Arnold  Shanklin,  President 

OBERLIN  COLLEGE 

Leonard  W.  Hatch,  Alumnus 

BUFFALO  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 

Walter  L.  Brown,  Librarian 

MOUNT  HOLYOKE  COLLEGE 
Florence  Purington,  Dean 

UNION  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 
Francis  Brown,  President 

OHIO  WESLEYAN  UNIVERSITY 

Robert  Irving  Fulton,  Dean,  School  of  Oratory 

FORDHAM  UNIVERSITY 

Thomas  J.  McClusky,  President 

IOWA  STATE  UNIVERSITY 

J.  G.  Bowman,  President 


Inauguration  Proceedings  \  \  5 

UNIVERSITY  OF  MISSOURI 

Hamilton  M.  Dawes,  Alumnus 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ROCHESTER 
Rush  Rhees,  President 

NORTHWESTERN  UNIVERSITY 

William  Francis  Doody,  Alumnus 

WASHINGTON  UNIVERSITY 

George  H.  Pegram,  Alumnus 

TUFTS  COLLEGE 

Charles  Ernest  Fay,   Wade  Professor  of  Modern 
Languages 

COLLEGE  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 

Charles  Baskerville,  Professor  of  Chemistry 
Walter  E.  Clark,  Professor  of  Political  Science 
Harry  A.  Overstreet,  Professor  of  Philosophy 
Herbert  R.  Moody,  Associate  Professor  of  Chem- 
istry 

Samuel  A.  Baldwin,  Professor  of  Music 
Frederick  G.  Reynolds,  Professor  of  Mathematics 
Charles  Downer,  Professor  of  Romance  Languages 
Paul  Saurel,  Professor  of  Mathematics 
Stephen  P.  Duggan,  Professor  of  Education 
Carleton  L.  Brownson,  Dean 
Thomas  A.  Storey,  Professor  of  Hygiene 

POLYTECHNIC  INSTITUTE  OF  BROOKLYN 
Fred  W.  Atkinson,  President 

ELMIRA  COLLEGE 

A.  Cameron  Mackenzie,  President 

ALFRED  UNIVERSITY 

Boothe  C.  Davis,  President 


116  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

NEW  YORK  HOMEOPATHIC  MEDICAL  COLLEGE  AND 

FLOWER  HOSPITAL 
Royal  S.  Copeland,  Dean 

ST  STEPHEN'S  COLLEGE 

William  Cunningham  Rodgers,  President 
David  Henry  Clarkson 
Alfred  Douglas  Phoenix 

UNIVERSITY  OF  WASHINGTON 
Theodore  C.  Frye 

COLLEGE  OF  ST  FRANCIS  XAVIER 
Joseph  H.  Rockwell,  President 

VASSAR  COLLEGE 

Abby  Leach,  Professor  of  Greek 

Henry  S.  White,  Professor  of  Mathematics 

MANHATTAN  COLLEGE 

Brother  Edward,  President 

BUFFALO  SOCIETY  OF  NATURAL  SCIENCES 
Henry  R.  Howland,  Superintendent 

CORNELL  UNIVERSITY 

George  P.  Bristol,  Dean,  School  of  Education 
William  M.  Polk,  Dean,  Medical  College 
V.  A.  Moore,  Dean,  New  York  State  Veterinary 
College 

LEHIGH  UNIVERSITY 

Henry  Sturgis  Drinker,  President 
Morrill  Emery  Nott,  Vice  President 

EST  VIRGINIA  UNIVERSITY 
Thomas  E.  Hodges,  President 


Inauguration  Proceedings  \  1 7 

WELLS  COLLEGE 

Kerr  D.  Macmillan,  President 

AMERICAN  MUSEUM  OF  NATURAL  HISTORY 
E.  A.  Covey,  Curator 
G.  Clyde  Fisher,  Assistant  Curator 

OHIO  STATE  UNIVERSITY 

William  Oxley  Thompson,  President 

ST  JOHN'S  COLLEGE 

J.  W.  Moore,  President 

BOSTON  UNIVERSITY 

Lemuel  Herbert  Murlin,  President 

SMITH  COLLEGE 

Ada  Louise  Comstock,  Dean 

WELLESLEY  COLLEGE 

Malvina  M.  Bennett,  Professor  of  Elocution 

AMERICAN  LIBRARY  ASSOCIATION 

Walter  L.  Brown,  Librarian,  Buffalo  Public  Library 

JOHNS  HOPKINS  UNIVERSITY 

Kirby  Flower  Smith,  Professor  of  Latin 

METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 
Henry  W.  Kent 

AMERICAN  SOCIETY  OF  MECHANICAL  ENGINEERS 
Arthur  M.  Greene,  jr,  Honorary   Vice  President 
and  Professor  of  Mechanical  Engineering,  Rens- 
selaer  Polytechnic  Institute 

CANISIUS  COLLEGE 

George  J.  Krim,  President 
J.  Havens  Richards 
M.  J.  Ahern 


1 1 8  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

CHAUTAUQUA  INSTITUTION 

Frank  Chapin  Bray,  Editor,  The  Chautauquan 

ST  FRANCIS  COLLEGE 

Brother  David,  President 

CONNECTICUT  STATE  LIBRARY 

George  S.  Godard,  State  Librarian 

TEMPLE  UNIVERSITY 

Russell  H.  Conwell,  President 
Wilmer  Krusen 

BROOKLYN  COLLEGE  OF  PHARMACY 
Thomas  F.  Raymond,  Instructor 

JEWISH  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY  OF  AMERICA 
Jacob  H.  Schiff,  Trustee 

NORMAL  COLLEGE  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 
George  S.  Davis,  President 

CLARK  UNIVERSITY 

G.  Stanley  Hall,  President 

KEUKA  COLLEGE 

Joseph  A.  Serena,  President 

NEW  YORK  STATE  NORMAL  COLLEGE 
William  J.  Milne,  President 
Leonard  A.  Blue,  Dean 
Leonard  W.  Richardson,  Professor  of  Greek  and 

Latin 
A.  W.  Risley,  Professor  of  History 

NEW  YORK  BOTANICAL  GARDEN 

W.  A.  Murrill,  Assistant  Director 


Inauguration  Proceedings  1 1 9 

SYRACUSE  UNIVERSITY 

John  L.  Heffron,  Dean,  College  of  Medicine 
James  B.  Brooks,  Dean,  College  of  Law 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 

Harry  Pratt  Judson,  President 

UNIVERSITY  OF  NEW  MEXICO 

Douglass  W.  Johnson,  Professor  of  Physiography, 
Columbia  University 

NEW  YORK  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 
Agnes  Van  Valkenburgh 

AMERICAN  SCENIC  AND  HISTORIC    PRESERVATION 

SOCIETY 
George  F.  Kunz,  President 

ADELPHI  COLLEGE 

William  C.  Peckham,  Professor  of  Physics 
John  F.  Coar 

ROCKEFELLER  INSTITUTE  FOR  MEDICAL  RESEARCH 
Simon  Flexner,  Director 

CARNEGIE  INSTITUTE  OF  TECHNOLOGY 
Arthur  W.  Tarbell 

WILLIAM  SMITH  COLLEGE 

Lyman  P.  Powell,  President  of  Hobart  College 

FRENCH  INSTITUTE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

McDougall  Hawkes,  Chairman,  Board  of  Trustees 

MUSEUM  OF  FRENCH  ART 

Thomas  Hughes  Kelly,  Vice  Chairman,  Board  of 
Trustees 


1 20  The  University  of  the  State  of  New  York 

INTERNATIONAL  COUNCIL  OF  NURSES 

M.  Adelaide  Nutting,  Professor  of  Nursing  and 
Health,  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University 

WILLIAM  M.  RICE  INSTITUTE  FOR  THE  ADVANCE- 
MENT OF  LITERATURE,  SCIENCE  AND  ART 
Edgar  Odell  Lovett,  President 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  THE  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK 

Regents  of  the  University 
With  years  when  terms  expire 

1 9 1 7  ST  CLAIR  MCKELWAY  M. A.  LL.D.  D.C.L.  L.H.D. 

Chancellor  Brooklyn 

1914  PLINY  T.  SEXTON  LL.B.  LL.D.  Vice  Chancellor       Palmyra 

1915  ALBERT  VANDER  VEER  M.D.  M.A.  Ph.D.  LL.D.  Albany 

1922  CHESTER  S.  LORD  M.A.  LL.D.     -      -      -      New  York 

1918  WILLIAM  NOTTINGHAM  M.A.  Ph.D.  LL.D.      -  Syracuse 
1921  FRANCIS  M.  CARPENTER    -      ...      Mount  KUco 

1923  ABRAM  I.  ELKUS  LL.B.  D.C.L.        .      .      .New  York 

1916  LUCIUS  N.  LJTTAUER  B.A.  -         -         -         Gloversrille 

1924  ADELBERT  MOOT Buffalo 

1 925  CHARLES  B.  ALEXANDER  M.  A.  LL.B.  LL.D.  Litt.D.  Tuxedo 

1919  JOHN  MOORE        .        .        -         -         -        -        Elmira 

1920  ANDREW  j.  SHIPMAN  M.A.  LL.B.  LL.D.  .      .  New  York 


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